“We are a company with a strong international projection, we make 85% of our turnover – between exports and production – outside Italy, and therefore we expect above all from the new government that it will continue to support our exports”. These are the words, during the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, of theCEO of Leonardo Alessandro Profumo, who in particular hoped that the new yellow-red executive completes the legislation to bring G2G agreements, i.e. government-to-government, and therefore facilitate the positioning of a strategic company such as Leonardo in the international defense market.
As for the new European commission, Profumo expressed optimism on that front as well: “The president of the commission Ursula Von Der Leyen was the German defense minister, and has always worked for a unitary continental agenda. After all, the Defense Fund for the next five years has significant figures, around 13 billion euros”. The same goes for US Defense, another important market for Leonardo, where the budget is at an all-time high in times of peace, even higher than the already very high levels reached in the Reagan era.
However, there are concerns, as the CEO himself underlined during a press point at Villa d'Este in Cernobbio: “Germany is slowing down and for us it is relevant as an outlet market. Furthermore, we did not detect a negative impact on the financial accounts on Brexit in our analyses, but nevertheless in the event of a hard Brexit there would be two reasons for concern: the fact that the United Kingdom (where Leonardo exports but above all produces, ed), as a result, would leave the Community Defense program, and human resources. About two thirds of our personnel trained in technological subjects are not of British nationality, and an exit of the UK without an agreement with Brussels would put part of the workforce at risk”.
Leonardo in any case travels quickly towards his goals: both in 2018 and in the first months of 2019 the progress of the strategic plan presented in January 2018 continues at full speed, ahead of its targets, and the Stock Exchange rewards: “The share had fallen previously – Profumo admitted – but I believe that the recovery is linked to the markets' confidence in our plan. For 2019 we have also confirmed the guidance”. Finally, on the topic under discussion at the Cernobbio meeting, namely the future of the Italian and European economy, Leonardo's CEO has a very clear recipe: “The absolute priority for Italy is to return to growth. And then redistribute wealth more fairly. I have been repeating for almost twenty years now that a company must not generate profits, but value. And therefore be sustainable and socially legitimized”.
