Nightmare day today in Piazza Affari for the Finmeccanica galaxy. The title of the defense giant fails to make the price at the opening, marking a theoretical decline of about 14 points. The collapse is related to news of the arrest of the president and managing director of the group Giuseppe Orsi.
Deep red also for the shares of Ansaldo Sts (subsidiary of Finmeccanica), which instead were admitted to trading and shortly after the start of trading left almost seven and a half points on the field (at 6,965 euros), clearly behind the Ftse Mib .
Yesterday the Ansaldo board of directors announced the numbers for 2012: revenues up slightly to 1,248 billion (from 1,212 in 2011), Ebit to 117 million (from 116 million) and consolidated net result to 76 million (from 73 million in 2011). New orders fell to 1,492 billion from 2,164 billion the previous year, which benefited from a mega-contract from Honolulu. The order book amounts to 5,683 billion from 5,453 in 2011.
However, the event that most affects the performance of stocks on the Stock Exchange is naturally the arrest of Orsiaccused of international corruption. The story concerns the 2010 contract for the supply of twelve helicopters to the Indian government by Agusta Westland, controlled by Finmeccanica, a company of which Orsi was the managing director at the time.
Of the 556 million euros for the Indian deal, 51 would be used to pay bribes. According to the former head of external relations of Finmeccanica, Lorenzo Borgogni, part of this money would have been destined for the Northern League.
Today the Public Prosecutor of Busto Arsizio has also ordered house arrest for the current CEO of Agusta Westland, Bruno Spagnolini.
Meanwhile, Finmeccanica announces that it "confirms the orderly continuation of management activities and the continuation of initiatives in progress". Furthermore, the company "expresses solidarity with its chairman and managing director, with the hope that clarity will be clarified in the short term, reaffirming its faith in the work of the judiciary".
