Fincantieri one step away from the historic French plants of Saint Nazaire. The green light came from the Court of Seoul, which assessed the adequacy of the offer made by the Italian group on 66,6% of Stx France, so far controlled by the Korean Stx. According to rumors reported by Il Sole 24 Ore, Fincantieri's offer would amount to between 100 and 200 million euros.
The remaining third of the property of the transalpine company, which employs 2.600 people and is considered strategic by the government, is held precisely by the State (33,4%), which since mid-October, when the procedure for the sale began, has imply that he will have the final say on the buyer.
At the moment the French Secretary of State for Industry Christophe Sirigue has expressed a favorable opinion on the operation and in line with what was previously hoped for by the executive: “We said that we wanted an industrial and European partner, Fincantieri is one, for which we would now have difficulty resisting”.
However, the mayor of Saint Nazaire and the transalpine trade unions do not think so: "The state can still block this proposal or integrate it with a complementary proposal - said David Samzun, mayor and member of the Socialist Party -, we are still fully in time, for example to involve the French company DCNS”, one of the main European shipbuilders. Sirigue is already on site today to meet with trade unions and local authorities.
Meanwhile, the French press crowns the candidacy of Fincantieri, considered by Les Echos "a flagship of Italian industry, a group with a century-old history, which has built 7.000 ships and employs 19.000 people worldwide". A group that in 2016 exceeded 4 billion euros in turnover, and to which it will be difficult to say no.
