Bad start to the Stock Exchange week for Finmeccanica. By mid-morning, the defense giant's stock dropped to Piazza Affari by more than two percentage points, at 4,852 euros, dragged down by the Standard & Poor's downgrade. The US rating agency cut its long-term rating on the company on Friday from BBB- with negative outlook to BB+ with stable outlook. The downgrade came primarily due to the longer-than-expected lead times in implementing the divestment plan.
In its report today, Equita points out that Finmeccanica has made only 260 million euros out of a target of one billion by the end of last year. In any case, the group reconfirmed the objectives envisaged for 2012: revenues of between 16,9 and 17,3 billion euros, Ebitda of approximately 1,1 billion, positive Free Operating Cash Flow and the commitment to implement the restructuring and disposals.
Both Moody's (Baa3/Outlook stable) and Fitch (BBB-/Outlook negative) have instead recently confirmed their “investment grade” rating on Finmeccanica.
