Piaggio Aero lands at Abu Dhabi. The stock formerly owned by Indiana Tata Limited they were acquired by the Mubadala Development Company, a strategic investment company of the United Arab Emirates government, which thus became the controlling shareholder of the Italian company.
As a result of the acquisition, approved by the Italian Government with a decree pursuant to the "Golden Power" law, Mubadala now holds 98,05% of the share capital, while the former president of the company, Piero Ferrari, owns the remaining 1,95%.
Furthermore, the new Piaggio Aero board of directors elected the lawyer Alberto Galassi as president and appointed the engineer Carlo Logli as managing director.
“As an Italian – said Galassi – I am delighted that a global and selective investor like Mubadala has chosen to become the reference shareholder of Piaggio Aero. The company is engaged in important programs of innovation, development and diversification. Mubadala's support and guidance will allow Piaggio Aero to fully exploit its technical and industrial potential, creating technological products of excellence”.
Mubadala, established in 2002 by the Abu Dhabi government as the main investment vehicle for the diversification of the Emirate's economy, entered Piaggio Aero as a shareholder in 2006 and at the end of 2013 approved and subscribed to a capital increase to support of the company's rescue and recovery plan.
Meanwhile, more than 500 workers at the Piaggio Aero plant in Sestri Ponente have decided to go on strike to the bitter end and for occupation. The protest is against the company's decision to reconfirm the January industrial plan, with 165 redundancies – initially frozen after the meeting in Rome and now back in the balance – and 207 outsourcing, with the closure of the Genoese plant.
