Fincantieri has found an agreement to acquire a stake between 45 and 49 percent of Stx France. In this way, the Italian company would remain under 50 per cent as desired by the Paris government (33 per cent shareholder, share of which it remains in possession). Thus a delicate industrial dossier is resolved just two weeks before the first round of the presidential elections.
The possible scheme of understanding, writes Le Monde, also provides for the entry of Dncs in the capital of Stx France with a participation between 11 and 14 per cent. The remaining shares would go to an Italian institutional investor.
Relations between Rome and Paris would therefore be governed by a new shareholders' agreement for 12 years which would guarantee the French government a series of enhanced prerogatives with respect to the agreement with the Koreans of Stx (which currently control Stx France).
In the afternoon, the French government gave the go-ahead in principle to Fincantieri for the purchase of the Stx shipyards. The news was announced by the Minister of Industry Christophe Sirugue. Fincantieri "will be the reference shareholder with a minority stake".
The French DCNS group will enter the capital of Stx, while the workers' representatives will join the board of directors. The French state which holds a 33% stake will retain a veto right.
In recent weeks, the union representatives had expressed on several occasions a strong concern about the entry of the Italian group into the capital of Stx France, but the fears would seem to have been overcome also in the light of the reassurances offered by the CEO of Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono.
Indeed, according to Ouest-France online, the Italian group has "committed to maintaining jobs in Saint-Nazaire".
(Last update 18.21).
