The leaders of France and Italy on Wednesday announced a deal that allows Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri SpA to take control of France’s STX shipyard with a shared goal of creating a world behemoth in the naval industry.
The deal also brings an end to a weekslong dispute between the two countries after France had unexpectedly blocked a takeover by Fincantieri this summer, citing job and strategic concerns.
The agreement was announced one day after the high-profile merger between Germany’s Siemens AG and France’s Alstom SA to create a European train-making giant.
Photo: AP
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking alongside Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni in the French city of Lyon, called the French-Italian shipyard agreement a “win-win deal” aimed at “creating a world champion in the naval field.”
Putting the industrial dispute between the two nations behind him, Gentiloni touted the new entity’s potential as a naval industry giant and said its success would help Europe as a whole down the line.
“Italy and France have a great need for a Europe that is a motor of investment, work and growth,” he said.
STX is the only shipyard in France big enough to build aircraft carriers and large warships. Last year, it turned out the world’s largest cruise ship, the Harmony of the Seas, and earlier created the Queen Mary II.
The deal effectively gives state-controlled Fincantieri a 51 percent stake in the key shipyard on the Atlantic coast in Saint-Nazaire.
Fincantieri is to pay 60 million euros (US$70.5 million) to own 50 percent of STX, Macron’s office said.
France will lend Fincantieri another 1 percent stake to give the Italian group operational control.
The lending mechanism allows France to take back the 1 percent stake during the next 12 years, if the French government determines Fincantieri is not complying with its commitments.
The remaining 49 percent stake will remain in French hands, held mostly by the government and the state-owned Naval Group.
Under the new shareholder structure, 34.34 percent will be owned by the French state, including the 1 percent stake loaned to Fincantieri.
Fincantieri has committed to maintaining the shipyard’s research and development division in France; not transferring know-how or intellectual property outside Europe; granting France a right of veto over the future name of the STX company; and giving the French special rights related to the military activity of STX, Macron’s office said.
France will pay particular attention to Fincantieri’s compliance with the rules of governance, the level of investment, the preservation of jobs on French soil and the activity of French subcontractors, the French presidency said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained