Finmeccanica's stock took off on the Stock Exchange, earning more than three and a half percentage points at the start of trading, at 9,365 euros, achieving the best increase in the Ftse Mib. The wave of purchases on the shares of the defense giant was triggered by the publication of the business plan 2015-2019, which was approved yesterday by the Board of Directors and will be presented at 12 in London by CEO Mauro Moretti to the financial community.
The plan calls for a reduction of net financial debt of over 600 million in 2017, from 4,1 billion at the end of 2014. Turning to revenues, the projection for 2015 "reflects a perimeter reduction of approximately 500 million euros", due to the transfer from Alenia to Boeing of "pass-through activities" on the B787 contract for 300 million and the "expected exit from two DRS segments" for 200 million. Finmeccanica will further concentrate on the core business represented by the key areas of Aeronautics, Defense and Space with a target of 20% growth in Ebitda by 2016 (compared to 2014) and an improvement of 150 basis points.
The Board also revised upwards for the second time the estimates on the results for 2014 and mandated the CEO to “continue negotiations with the aim” of sell the Transportation division and “reach a favorable conclusion as soon as possible”. According to union sources, in pole position for the purchase of AnsaldoBreda and Ansaldo Sta are the Japanese Hitachi, ahead of the Chinese consortium led by Insigma.
“The actions taken since May last year already make evident the change underway - commented Moretti -, which puts Finmeccanica in the right direction for a near future of relaunch and development, which creates value for shareholders, for our customers , for Group employees and for all our stakeholders”.
