Finmeccanica

Finmeccanica is the second industry group Italy N, the first in high technology and one of the five first in the world. It is present in the sectors of the defense, of the Hélicoptère S, the Aéronautique and the space, of the Automatique, the Transport and the energy. The company is installed in more than 100 countries and in particular in the United Kingdom where the group repurchased many companies of defense. It employs more 58.000 people. Its turnover rose in 2005 to 15 billion euros.

Born in 1948, in the form of holding financial of the mechanical sector integrated in IRI and remained a holding diversified and subjected to the political pressures of the various governments until 1980, date on which a general reorganization of the sector of the participations of State was carried out.

At that time, Finmeccanica held in particular the groups:

AERITALIA, born from fusion into 1969 of Aerfer with division aviation of FIAT), and specialized in the civil aircrafts means mails, all military aircrafts, but more especially complete component maker for the large transport aircrafts - fuselage and empennage of Boeing in particular -
automobile Alfa Romeo divisions of tourism and commercial vehicles, company sold in 1986 with FIAT Car,
Ansaldo, very old and important company of mechanics, created in 1843, large manufacturer of ships, trains and powerplants, converted with industrial electronics, the powerplants (of which Super-Phénix in France) and the sector ferroviare at high speed.

The Finmeccanica group was privatisé in June 2000, by the setting out of stock exchange held by IRI. Following this operation, the Italian State preserves 32,45% of the capital.

The Finmeccanica group controls currently more than one hundred of subsidiary companies in Italy and abroad.

The industrial project of “large Finmeccanica”

From 1982 and under the impulse of Fabiano Fabiani, its Managing director and Managing director, the project of a " large Finmeccanica" the day sees. The will was to centralize in the middle same of the holding financial public all the Italian companies intervening in the advanced technique sectors in order to reach the critical size to justify Italian presence in the world; to become one of the world leaders in space technologies (where FIAT was the world leader uncontested in the systems of propulsion but only in this activity), defense, robotics, micro-electronics, which were hitherto fragmented between divisions Finmeccanica and STET, both pertaining to the Iri, Aviofer and FinBreda pertaining to EFIM, another holding of State. These holdings of State but with a private statute, although having the same shareholder often found themselves in competition without the knowledge.

Finmeccanica thus could, after its exit of the public bosom, to acquire important participations in many Italian privately held companies and modiales like Aermacchi, celebrates manufacturer of planes, Aeronavali Dispensary of Venice). This process of reorganization was relatively slow.

The repurchase of the companies of the STET

A significant progress in the concentration of the advanced technological companies was reached when in 1989, STET yielded to Finmeccanica three key companies:

Selenia, specialized in space technologies and the defense systems - missiles - which will amalgamate with AERITALIA to give rise to Alenia,
Elsag (Elettronica San Giorgio), specialized in robotics and the industrial automatisms,
SGS-Thomson, Italian-French joint-venture in the semiconductors, which, after the exit of Thomson of the capital in 1992 became ST Microelectronics. It is today the first European manufacturer and the 6th world one.

In 1990 Finmeccanica repurchased the industrial activities in Italy of the English group Ferranti, which gathered EXCEPT (mobile communications), Laben (space) and Elmer (electronic).

The Nineties

The encountered main difficulty stalemate Finmeccanica was its lack of financial availabilities to enable him to proceed quickly to the planned growth knowing that its principal shareholder could never only have supported this effort.

Thus in 1993 Finmeccanica opened its capital and will be introduced in bourse.
When the Italian State decided to dissolve the EFIM in 1994, Finmeccanica could finally constitute the Italian national pole of defense by taking again historical companies like

Breda Meccanica Bresciana specialist in the trains, the weapons and the ammunition,
Oto Melara specialist in the military vehicles in attack and the artillery,
Officine Galileo of Florence specialist in the guidance systems,
Agusta of Varese civil global manufacturer of élicoptères and militaires.

But it is only into 1996 that the fusion of railway divisions Ansaldo and Breda could be concretized to give rise to AnsaldoBreda.

In 1991, elsewhere in the world, Finmeccanica repurchased large companies like:

American Bailey Controls Company and Fisher & To carry Company
German Hartmann & Braun,

specialized companies in industrial automation.

The years 2000

Between 1999 and 2000, Finmeccanica signed important international agreements which will give fresh impulse to its development on a world level with:

English Marconi become BAE Systems, Finmeccanica created a joint-venture: AMS, which will fusiuonnera all the activity of defense of Selenia,
English GKN, Finmeccanica created Agusta Westland, which is the second producer of helicopters in the world.

In spite of the important partecipation in STMicroelectronics and the maintenance of the basic industrial activities like energy and the railway sector, as from 2001, under the presidency of Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, the development strategy of Finmeccanica went on the fields of space and defense. Important repurchases were operated:

in 2002:

Mobile English Marconi in telecommunications,
Italian Telespazio specialist in the satellite transmissions and Aermacchi, important manufacturer of planes of military training,

in 2004:

the integral repurchase of the joint-ventures Agusta Westland and AMS, and of all their subsidiary companies in the world.

After the resumption and the incorporation of AgustaWestland and AMS, Finmeccanica became the third world manufacturer of the sector defense. Finmeccanica remains one of the world main actors in their field with his subsidiary companies Ansaldo Energie, Ansaldo STS and AnsaldoBreda.

Finmeccanica maintained its participation in STMicroelectronics and keeps una participation of 25% in Avio (ex FIAT Avio), principal manufacturer of engines of planes, rockets and for ships. Avio was yielded by the group FIAT SpA in 2003.

Current main activities

Aeronautical: Alenia Aeronautica,

construction of regional planes in J-V 50/50 with EADS for ATR in Toulouse,
participation to a total value of 18% in the construction of Boeing 747,767 and 777,
first manufacturer of planes of 100 places,

Electronic and defense systems: gestione of the air traffic, protected avionics and telecommunications, includes/understands BAE Systems with Selex Sistemi Integrati and Selenia, Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems with Galileo, FIAR and Meteor, and Selex Communications with EXCEPT and Marconi Mobile, like ElsagDatamat specialist in information and communication technology ,
Espace with Alenia Spazio and its subsidiary companies Thalli-Alenia Space and Telespazio;
Helicopters: Finmeccanica is the second world manufacturer of helicopters, by its subsidiary company Agusta Westland held at 100% since 2004. This activity accounts for 18% of the total turnover of the group.
Transport: 17,6% of total CA; principal subsidiary companies of the group in this sector:

AnsaldoBreda (Trains at high speed, trains complete, Diesel loco and electric, tram and subways);
Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari : management systems for subway and railroads,
Ansaldo Signal N.V. : railway indication.

Energy with Ansaldo Energia, specialist in the powerplants, hydraulics, thermal gases and nuclear.

See too

List of the Italian large companies

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