India has canceled the 560 million euro contract with Finmeccanica subsidiary AgustaWestland for the purchase of 12 helicopters, which ended up at the center of a corruption scandal. This was announced by the Indian agency Pti citing a source in the New Delhi Ministry of Defense. The decision was made during a meeting between Indian Defense Minister AK Antony and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
However, the Indian Defense Ministry announced that it had accepted the request for arbitration made last October by AgustaWestland. International arbitration could reopen the entire dossier.
News of the cancellation of the order had already circulated a month and a half ago, but India had announced that it would make a decision by the end of November. The Indian authorities had already suspended the contract in 2013, after the opening of a judicial investigation in Italy which had led to the resignation of the group's former number one Giuseppe Orsi.
Finmeccanica made it known that it had not received any type of formal official communication and reiterated the "correctness of its conduct" and that "it intends in any case to assert its reasons in every competent forum".
Meanwhile, in Piazza Affari, the Finmeccanica share lost 1,45% with a price of 5,42.
