Strategic importance, employment, but above all "cognitive capital of the country": this is the most relevant impact identified by Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Leonardo, during the presentation of the study on the Italian Aerospace, Defense and Security supply chain, created in collaboration with Ambrosetti The European House and the former research minister Maria Chiara Carrozza. The research, presented during the last day of the Cernobbio Forum, first of all highlights the importance of research and development and patents: Leonardo employs 9 people in this area alone.
“The investments we make in Research and Development have an impact on all sectors of the economy. In Leonardo alone we invest around 1,5 billion in the research of new products and new technologies,” Profumo said at the press conference. “The study being presented today on the impacts of Aerospace and Defense on the economy confirms thestrategic importance of this sector for Italy. First of all for theoccupation. In fact, the sector directly and indirectly employs 160 people”.
Also called to respond to the negative trend on the Stock Exchange, despite the investments and the new industrial plan launched at the end of January, Profumo said that “at the beginning of my management, we had difficulties in the helicopter sector. We issued a profit warning, now helicopters are performing very well. Evidently investors have yet to fully appreciate this." On the new government, Leonardo's boss was keen to say that he has so far received "the greatest attention and the greatest possible listening. We are trying to make people understand how our sector is positioned and how our company is positioned in that sector. At the moment there is only attention from the government, not decision-making yet. But our industry is regulated, so there will be other comparisons. To Leonardo, even just to start a negotiation, I need an authorisation, because the rules provide for it".
More generally, on the Italy risk Profumo said that “yesterday's words from Salvini and Conte are absolutely clear and reassuring. The deputy premier said that external constraints will be respected and the premier reiterated that the executive must be judged by the facts and not from statements. The Def will be launched at the end of September, and I really believe that with that document the markets will be definitively reassured".
Just on the eve of the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Leonardo had, among other things, announced that he had exercised the right of first refusal for the acquisition of 98,54% of Vitrociset, a small but strategic Roman company specializing precisely in defense communication systems, of which Leonardo, the company led by Profumo, held 1,46%. The news, on Monday 10 September, was greeted with a boom in purchases on the Milan Stock Exchange, where the stock of Leonardo travels to the top of the Ftse Mib earning 7,7%.
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(Last update: 16.44 pm on 10 September).
