ANDY NATIVI / GENOA
Italian giant looks to expand presence in space services, shipbuilding and helicopters
Finmeccanica is looking to reinforce its position in the space services, helicopters and naval sectors as it continues to realign its remaining aerospace and defence businesses. This comes in the wake of European restructuring involving Finmeccanica's prime military aircraft, avionics and systems activities.
At a shareholder meeting last week, the company's president, Alberto Lina, said one of the first priorities will be to establish a joint venture or even a direct take-over of Telespazio - the Telecom group's space communications company - to add to its Alenia Spazio business. Although Telespazio reported a turnover last year of L710 billion ($313 million) and a L22 billion net profit, it is not considered "core business" by its parent.
Finmeccanica also confirmed its interest in a further expansion in the rotary wing sector following the merger of its Agusta subsidiary with the UK's GKN Westland. "There are five main helicopter companies in the world today and it could be a good thing if they were reduced to four. We are interested in exploiting any interesting opportunity," said Lina. Bell, which has ties with AgustaWestland, is touted as the most likely partner.
The company is hoping to complete its range of defence activities by finding an entry into the naval shipbuilding business through exploiting the planned privatisation of the main Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri - although this would require splitting off the shipbuilder's civilian arm.
Fincantieri management, however, has other ideas. It has already formed an alliance with the German HDW group and is looking to further horizontal integration while moving into the naval systems integration arena.
Whatever happens with Fincantieri, progress on Finmeccanica's naval weapons business seems assured. The latter has confirmed that it expects to sign a deal in the next few weeks with the French companies Thales and DCN to establish a joint venture in the torpedo business, with Finmeccanica taking a 51% stake.
Talks are also under way about a tie-up of the underwater acoustic division of WASS-Finmeccanica with Thomson Marconi Sonarli - the Thales/BAE Systems joint venture.
While bullish on its expansion plans, Finmeccanica may find its room for manoeuvre restricted by pressure to provide shareholders with a dividend. The company has not done so since 1993 and its main shareholder - the Treasury - has suggested it pays out next year.
Source: Flight International