the Only candidate to have filed an offer to take over the subsidiary flourishing of south Korean group STX Offshore and Shipbuliding that accumulates financial difficulties, the shipbuilder, Italian, based in Trieste, and with nearly 19,000 employees, has been selected by the commercial court of the central district of Seoul, charged with examining the procedure of receivership of the parent company of STX France.
Fincantieri has confirmed that they “was selected as the buyer exclusively in the context of the sale of the participation to 66,66% in the company STX France SA“, in a brief statement without further comment.
Sold to STX in 2008 by the Norwegian Aker Yards, which had been bought in 2006 Alstom, the last substantial naval French, with some 2,600 employees, has an order book filled until 2026: 14 cruise ships to be built, but also electricity sub-stations in the field of marine renewable energy.
The designation of Fincantieri puts an end to a long period of uncertainty about the identity of the buyer of STX France, whose majority shareholder has struggled for years with mounting losses caused by poor management and a global demand in bern.
But before an agreement is signed to acquire 66,6% of STX France, Fincantieri has yet to agree on a purchase price with the south Korean group and enter into discussions with the French State, which owns the remaining one-third, and has a blocking minority.
- Uncertainties and concerns union –
“It is now fixed“, underlines Christophe Morel, representative of CFDT at STX France. “But there are still a few more steps” and to questions about a possible entry into the capital of the French industrial group DCNS or shipowners.
fears of trade unions are far from being lifted, both on the industrial and strategic on the issue of employment.
“We still don’t know how to Fincantieri, we will operate, what strategy they will develop to be the building“, complains François January (CFE-CGC), for which the arrival of the Italian manufacturer “is not the best news possible“.
For Nathalie Durand-Prinborgne, delegated, FO, “it’s a big disappointment“. The union, which has long been urging the nationalisation of the shipyard, writes that he is “still time for the State to intervene“, by putting in place the decree Montebourg protection of strategic companies.
- Fear of a technology transfer to China –
The trade unions are concerned that medium-term synergies to be implemented for “delete posts as duplicates” between Fincantieri and STX, which are both cruise ships, but also military vessels.
the Other fear of the unions, the transfer of French know-how to China, Fincantieri has signed a technology transfer agreement with a chinese group, and, in the longer term, a relocation of production.
Majority in STX France, the CGT intends to apply to the secretary of State for Industry, Christophe Sirugue, expected Wednesday in Saint-Nazaire, “guarantees in terms of employment and a real development plan over three to five years in the light of the backlog,” explains its general secretary, Sébastien Benoît. “This goose that lays the golden eggs, it is necessary to defend“, he says. M. Sirugue had said in early November that the government would prefer a buyer in the industrial to buy STX France.
Recognizing the’expertise” and “savoir-faire” of the Italian group, the chair (LR) of the Countries of the Loire Bruno Retailleau wish, however, that in the framework of a “round table of the capital balance, the level of participation of the State and of DNCS is close to that of Fincantieri“.
Fincantieri, which presents itself as the main shipbuilder western and has 20 sites on 4 continents, has built more than 7,000 vessels in 230 years. Customers: cruise lines, but also many marine foreign, including the US Navy.
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