Andy Nativi/GENOA
Finmeccanica is to establish a new company to absorb its avionics activities ahead of a planned international alliance. The company, as yet unnamed, will be set up in the next few months and is to be based in Florence, Italy, home to Officine Galileo.
The new unit will absorb several businesses, most belonging to Alenia Difesa. It will have a workforce of 3,000, a turnover of 1,000 billion lira ($460 million) and an orderbook of 1,500 billion lira.
The seven sites to be grouped under the new company are:
1. Officine Galileo - Florence and Milan plants.
2. Alenia Difesa avionics division - Caselle plant, Nerviano-Milan and Pomezia-Naples plants.
3. FIAR - Milan.
4. Meteor - Ronchi dei Legionari, near Gorizia.
Finmeccanica hopes the new group will have the financial and technological clout to negotiate from a position of strength with prospective partners. Its capabilities will range from Meteor unmanned air vehicles to Fiar radar and avionics, Galileo infrared systems and aircraft instrumentation. Other, non-avionics, activities could be shed at a later date.
Talks on an avionics alliance are continuing with Thomson-CSF in France, BAE Systems in the UK and the former DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (part of EADS) in Germany. Even after the consolidation of its avionics interests, Finmeccanica will probably have to accept a minority role in any partnership.
Finmeccanica may take a smaller stake in the Airbus A3XX super-jumbo than the 10% on offer, and could delay a decision on taking a 5% stake in the Airbus Integrated Company (AIC) for two or more years. Senior vice-president strategic finance, Alberto De Benedictis says Alenia "might not be able to fulfil" a 10% A3XX workshare due to its components plant's capacity.
He adds that the Italian company also wants to "protect" its relationship with Boeing, and that this will be a factor in deciding whether or not to take 5% of Airbus. That decision is therefore likely to be taken towards the end of a three-year option period that will begin with the formation of the AIC, expected at year-end.
Italian resources are already thinly spread, with Rome likely to be called upon to fund the Airbus A400M military transport, Italy's future maritime patrol aircraft and, possibly, the Joint Strike Fighter.
Finmeccanica has posted strong first half results, turning in a net profit of 160 billion lira ($73 million), with aerospace, helicopter and defence activities contributing 134 billion lira of the total for the diversified group. The result compared with a 396 billion lira loss in the same period last year. New orders climbed 35%.
Source: Flight International
