Finmeccanica

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Finmeccanica S.p.A.
Type Società per azioni
Traded as BIT: FNC
Industry Aerospace, Defense
Founded 1948
Headquarters Rome, Italy
Key people Giuseppe Orsi (Chairman and CEO),[1][2] Alessandro Pansa COO and CFO
Products Aeronautics, helicopters, space, defence and security electronics, defence systems, energy, transportation
Revenue €18.695 billion (2010)[3]
Operating income €1.232 billion (2010)[3]
Profit €493 million (2010)[3]
Total assets €31.08 billion (end 2010)[3]
Total equity €7.098 billion (end 2010)[3]
Employees 72,000 (end 2010)[3]
Divisions
Website www.finmeccanica.com

Finmeccanica S.p.A. is an Italian conglomerate. Finmeccanica is the second largest industrial group and the largest of the hi-tech industrial groups based in Italy. It operates in seven sectors: aeronautics, helicopters, space, defence and security electronics, defence systems, energy and transportation. The company has offices in over 100 countries. It is partially owned by the Italian government, which holds about 30% of Finmeccanica's shares.

Contents

History [edit]

[icon] This section requires expansion. (May 2008)

The company was established in 1948 as a subholding for mechanical industry of state owned IRI. Finmeccanica has held for years some historic Italian enterprises, as Alfa Romeo, Aeritalia and Ansaldo; Finmeccanica presence in aerospace field was restricted to Aeritalia, the biggest airplane manufacturer of Italy.

From 1960s to 1980s Italy's defence and aerospace industry was split in different state-holding entities: so Efim owned the helicopters manufacturer Agusta, the defence company Oto Melara and the electronic enterprise Officine Galileo whereas STET (another IRI subsidiary) held Selenia, Elsag and SGS Thomson, all electronic enterprises with specializations in security and defense. In 1989 an internal IRI reorganization process brought STET electronic enterprises to Finmeccanica, that from Aeritalia-Selenia merger made up its aerospace subsidiary Alenia. In 1992 Efim wound up because of troubled financial situation; so Agusta, Oto Melara, Officine Galileo and Breda passed to Finmeccanica, which became one of the most important Italian industrial groups. Finmeccanica, which was previously fully state owned by IRI, went under a privatization process in 1993, when it was listed in Milan Borsa Italiana.

In 1992 Finmeccanica's Agusta became a 32% partner in NHIndustries, the prime contractor for NH90 helicopter, along with Eurocopter (62.5%) and Fokker (5.5%).

In July 2000 Finmeccanica and the British GKN plc agreed to merge their respective helicopter subsidiaries (Agusta and GKN-Westland Helicopters) to form AgustaWestland. On May 26, 2004 GKN confirmed that it would sell its share to its Finmeccanica for £1.06 billion.

In December 2001 the missile business of Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS), a joint Finmeccanica/BAE Systems company, was merged with other European missile manufacturers to form MBDA which thus became the world's second largest missile manufacturer.[4]

In July 2003 Finmeccanica and BAE Systems announced their intention to set up three joint venture companies, to be collectively known as Eurosystems. These companies would have pooled the avionics, C4ISTAR and communications businesses of the two companies.[5] However the difficulties of integrating the companies in this way led to a re-evaluation of the proposal; BAE's 2004 Annual Report states that "recognizing the complexity of the earlier proposed Eurosystems transaction with Finmeccanica we have moved to a simpler model". The main part of this deal was the dissolution of AMS and the establishment of SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems. In late March 2007 BAE Systems sold its 25% share of SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems to Finmeccanica for €400 million (approx. £270 million c. 2007).[6] SELEX S&AS now operates as SELEX Galileo following a merger with Galileo Avionica S.p.A. (another Finmeccanica company) in January 2008.

In May 2008 Finmeccanica announced its intention to purchase the U.S. defense contractor DRS Technologies for nearly $5.2 billion. On October 22, 2008, the sale of DRS Technologies was finalized.[7]

In 2011 the company faced accusations that it had created slush funds with which to bribe politicians and chairman Pier Francesco Guarguaglini came under investigation. He denied any wrongdoing but, following pressure from Prime Minister Mario Monti, he stepped down from his post on 1 December receiving a golden handshake of 4 million Euros.[1][2]

According to Finmeccanica emails published in the Syria Files release by WikiLeaks on 5 July 2012,[8] Finmeccanica increased its sale of mobile communications equipment to Syrian authorities during 2011, delivering 500 of these to the Damascus suburb Muadamia in May 2011,[9][10] after the Syrian uprising had started, and sending engineers to Damascus in February 2012 to provide training in using the communications equipment in helicopter terminals,[11] while the uprising continued.[12] Finmeccanica stated that the equipment sales were legal, they occurred "before the outbreak of conflict inside Syria", and the equipment "was designed for use by emergency responders" for civilian use only.[12]

It was reported on 12 February 2013 that the chief executive, Giuseppe Orsi, was arrested on corruption charges. Prosecutors allege he paid bribes to ensure the sale of 12 helicopters to the Indian government, when he was head of the group's AgustaWestland unit.[13][14]

On February 13rd 2013 Finmeccanica’s Board of Directors names Mr Alessandro Pansa Chief Executive Officer and resolves to confer the role of Vice Chairman to Admiral Guido Venturoni.[15]

Shortly after Pansa's appointment, Italian investigators discovered a case of bribery by Finmeccanica in its deal with India following which the government of India issued a show cause notice to the company. [16]

Organization [edit]

Through its Alenia Aermacchi subsidiary, Finmeccanica is a 21% shareholder of Eurofighter GmbH.
Aeronautics
Helicopters
Space
Defence and Security Electronics
Energy and Transportation
  • Ansaldo Energia
    The company has more than a hundred years of power generation experience and an installed capacity exceeding 153,000 MW in over 75 countries. Revenues in 2003 stood at 802 million euros.
  • Ansaldo Fuel Cells
    In June 2004 Ansaldo Fuel Cells inaugurated the Terni industrial fuel cell production facility for stationary applications. The production capacity, initially 3 MW, should have reached 15 MW by 2006.
  • AnsaldoBreda
    Heavy and Light Rail Vehicles are to be found in Denmark (62 diesel trains and 34 metro cars), Norway (36 electric trains and 32 light metro vehicles), Madrid (180 heavy metro vehicles), Gothenburg (65 Sirio light rail stock), Birmingham+Manchester (16+6 light metro vehicles), Lille (24 light metro vehicles), SanFrancisco+Boston (151+100 light metro vehicles), Atlanta+Los Angeles (100+42 heavy metro vehicles), and Athens (35 Sirio light rail vehicles).
  • BredaMenarinibus[21]
    The second largest manufacturer of buses in Italy, based in Bologna. It has a workforce of 300 employees and a turnover of about 100 million euros.
  • Ansaldo STS (40%)
Defence Systems
Ariete tank, result of a collaboration between Oto Melara and Fiat Industrial's subsidiary Iveco

Joint ventures [edit]

  • MBDA (25%)
  • Horizon SAS and EuroSysNav
    50-50 joint ventures between DCNS of France and Finmeccanica/Fincantieri of Italy. France and Italy placed a combined order for 27 FREMMs to be delivered by 2016 at a cost of US$16 billion (€11 billion), making it Western Europe's largest naval project to date.[22][23]
Marina Militare's FREMM Bergamini
  • EuroTorp
    50-50 joint venture between Finmeccanica and DCN/Thales of France. EuroTorp is the world market leader for lightweight torpedoes, and the European leading company in antisubmarine weapon systems.
  • NHIndustries (32%)[24]
  • Eurofighter GmbH (21%)
    Joint venture with EADS and BAE Systems for co-ordination of the design, production and upgrade of Eurofighter Typhoon.
  • Global Military Aircraft Systems (GMAS) between Alenia North America Inc and L-3 IS (subsidiary of L-3 Communications) in order to compete for the FCA program (Future Cargo Aircraft):
  • Superjet 100
  • NEUROn

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b Dominelli, Celestina (2011-11-01). "Finmeccanica, Guarguaglini lascia. All'ad Orsi anche la carica di presidente". Il Sole 24 Ore (in Italian). Retrieved 2011-11-01. 
  2. ^ a b "Finmeccanica chairman steps down amid slush-fund probe: Guarguaglini bows to pressure, CEO Orsi takes over". ANSA (Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata). 2011-11-02. Retrieved 2011-11-02. 
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Annual Report 2010". Finmeccanica. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
  4. ^ "EADS, BAE and Finmeccanica Complete MBDA Merger". Defense Daily International. 2001-12-21. "the new MBDA, the world's second largest missile manufacturer behind Raytheon" 
  5. ^ "BAE ties up £2.6bn Italian deal". BBC News (BBC). 2003-06-03. Retrieved 2007-09-13. 
  6. ^ Parmalee, Patricia J. (2007-04-09). "Selex Sale Sealed". Aviation Week & Space Technology (The McGraw-Hill Companies). 
  7. ^ "Finmeccanica completes $5.2B DRS buy". The Business Journal of Milwaukee. 2008-10-22. 
  8. ^ "List of documents – Release How the Finmeccanica technology is helping the Syrian regime". WikiLeaks. 2012-07-05. Archived from the original on 2012-07-05. Retrieved 2012-07-06. 
  9. ^ "RE: Delivery of 500 Vehicular Radio VS3000 ( 1000 box)". WikiLeaks. 2011-05-09. Archived from the original on 2012-07-05. Retrieved 2012-07-06. 
  10. ^ Squires, Nick (2012-07-05). "WikiLeaks begins publishing tranche of Syria emails". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2012-07-05. Retrieved 2012-07-06. 
  11. ^ Moschonas, Ilias (2012-02-02). "SELEX reply on urgent requests". WikiLeaks. Archived from the original on 2012-07-06. Retrieved 2012-07-06. 
  12. ^ a b Mackenzie, James; Andrew Roche, Pravin Char (2012-07-05). "Finmeccanica sold radio equipment to Syria: report". Thomson Reuters. Archived from the original on 2012-07-05. Retrieved 2012-07-06. 
  13. ^ Finmeccanica's Giuseppe Orsi held on corruption charges
  14. ^ Emilio Parodi and Stephen Jewkes (12 February 2013). "Finmeccanica head arrested over India bribe allegations". Reuters. 
  15. ^ Finmeccanica Board Named Pansa CEO
  16. ^ http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Govt-issues-show-cause-notice-to-Finmeccanica/Article1-1012216.aspx
  17. ^ "EADS Global Website – En". Eads.net. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 
  18. ^ [1][dead link]
  19. ^ "Profile". AgustaWestland. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 
  20. ^ "Selex ES CEO Fabrizio Giulianini presents top level business structure". Selex ES. 12 November 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2013. 
  21. ^ "Bredamenarinibus". Bredamenarinibus.it. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 
  22. ^ http://www.european-defence.co.uk/fremm.html[dead link]
  23. ^ http://www.janes.com/defence/naval_forces/news/idr/idr061113_1_n.shtml[dead link]
  24. ^ "NH90, helicopter, naval helicopter, army NH90 – NHIndustries – NH90, The New Reference for the Armed Forces". NHIndustries. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 

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