MILAN--Finmeccanica SpA's (FNC.MI) new chief executive officer
has decided against selling the group's AnsaldoBreda division
outright, preferring to look for an industrial partner to help the
maker of trams and trains compete better in the global market.
Alessandro Pansa revealed his decision at an event celebrating
the delivery of a new high-speed train to state railway operator
Ferrovie della Stato in the town of Pistoia earlier this week,
according to a Finmeccanica spokesman Thursday, confirming local
news reports.
Mr. Pansa would prefer to sell a minority stake to a partner and
leave open the possibility of selling a further stake in the future
to allow the partner to gain majority control.
AnsaldoBreda is one of three divisions that Finmeccanica had put
up for sale in 2011 as it set about restructuring itself, a
cumbersome conglomerate with activities ranging from helicopters to
missiles.
AnsaldoBreda and the other two divisions--Ansaldo Energia and
Ansaldo STS SpA (STS.MI)--were supposed to have been sold off by
the end of 2012 to raise up to EUR1 billion to pay off debt.
Despite reported interest from Japan's Hitachi Ltd. (6501.TO),
AnsaldoBreda remains part of Finmeccanica--as do the other
divisions.
The only asset that Finmeccanica managed to sell was a minority
stake in aerospace company Avio SpA to General Electric Co (GE) in
early December.
Finmeccanica was later convulsed by the February arrest of its
chief executive officer, Giuseppe Orsi, as part of an investigation
into allegations of the use of bribes to secure a helicopter
contract in India. Mr. Orsi has denied any wrongdoing.
Finmeccanica quickly replaced him with Mr. Pansa, who has taken
pains to assure markets that the restructuring would still go
ahead, if at a somewhat slower pace when it came to selling
assets.
"Although the news by itself may seem negative if read together
with a complete and redesigned restructuring plan at Finmeccanica
it could be a positive in the long term," Mediobanca analyst
Massimo Vecchio wrote in a March 27 report. "That's because the
strategy of selling assets, in our view, have always had zero
chances (selling assets, some of which problematic, to foreigners
was never a real option in our mind)."
AnsaldoBreda, which has been losing money for years, is the
supplier of high-speed trains for a new service between Belgium and
the Netherlands, among other projects.
Write to Gilles Castonguay at gilles.castonguay@dowjones.com;
Twitter: @GRCastonguay
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