A joint committee of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation completed its inquiry Friday into the financial stability of selected rail contractor Ansaldo Honolulu Joint Venture, with a key member saying the committee had no major concerns.

Authority Finance Committee Chairman Don Horner said no information that came up at the meeting of HART’s finance and project oversight committees raised "any significant concern."

"We’re satisfied that the questions we had have been addressed," Horner said after the meeting, attended by a top executive of one of the Italian companies that formed Ansaldo Honolulu JV.

Friday was the deadline for signing the contract, but the HART board postponed the signing after concerns surfaced about Ansaldo Honolulu JV’s ability to carry out the terms of the agreement.

Finmeccanica SpA, the parent company of Ansaldo Honolulu JV, announced last week it had suffered a third-quarter loss of about $1 billion. Finmeccanica has said it is seeking a buyer for AnsaldoBreda, one of two Finmeccanica companies that formed Ansaldo Honolulu JV.

Authority interim Executive Director Toru Hamayasu said he needed time to digest the information provided by Ansaldo and would make a decision next week on whether to sign the contract, which would authorize the start of a $1.4 billion phase of the Kapolei-to-Ala Moana rail project.

Hamayasu said a recent inquiry by the authority found that the companies that formed Ansaldo Honolulu JV — Ansaldo STS and AnsaldoBreda — had not defaulted on a project in the past 10 years.

Hamayasu said he is confident that the surety bond put up in the event Ansaldo Honolulu JV failed to complete the design-and-build portion of the project was more than adequate to finish the work.

"Our due diligence shows that the contractor has the financial capacity," Hamayasu said.

Horner said he saw no material change in the financial status of Ansaldo Honolulu JV since the city decided to award the bid in March.

Horner said committee members were also reassured by the testimony Friday of Sergio De Luca, chief executive officer of Ansaldo STS, one of the partners in the joint venture.

De Luca told the committee that his company has a long history of delivering highly successful state-of-the-art rail systems to cities around the world, including Los Angeles, Boston and Washington.

De Luca said Ansaldo’s earnings have increased dramatically in the last several years, with an increase in equity to $538 million in 2010 from $170 million in 2006.