Fincantieri: the increase starts on 24 June. New share price set at EUR 2.62

Fincantieri's board of directors is officially starting up the engines of the EUR 500 million capital increase (EUR 400 million immediately and another EUR 100 million in a second step once the first tranche has been completed), after the go-ahead from Consob, at a subscription price of EUR 2.62 per new share. The recapitalisation will start on 24 June next and will be used to support the acquisition of the former Wass from Fincantieri, a crucial junction in CEO Pierroberto Folgiero's plans to ensure the naval-mechanics group's leadership in diving.

The final piece, as mentioned, arrived late Thursday evening with the approval of the board, which met under the chairmanship of Folgiero himself - after the death on Monday of chairman Claudio Graziano, who was also honoured yesterday at the funeral chamber set up at the Caelian Hill by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni -, at the subscription price of EUR 2.62 for the new shares linked to the capital increase, incorporating a discount of 32.2% compared to the so-called Terp (i.e. the theoretical price of the shares after the detachment of the option right relating to the increase) and for a maximum of 152.419,410 shares, while the exercise price of the warrants was set at EUR 4.44 per qualifying share up to a maximum of 22,414,615 warrants (and 14.9% discount to the Terp).

The total countervalue of the offer, reads the press release issued by the board of directors shortly after midnight on Thursday, will be EUR 399,338,854.20, while for the warrants the bar will be set at EUR 99,520,890.60. The increase will start, as mentioned, on 24 June and close on 11 July, while the securities will be negotiable until the 5th of the same month. The date on which the warrants will begin trading will be decided by Borsa Italiana in a special notice.

At the same time as the board of directors' approval, Fincantieri then signed the guarantee agreement with the banking consortium (Bnp Paribas, Intesa Sanpaolo, Jefferies, Jp Morgan and Mediobanca, the joint global coordinators), which undertook to underwrite any unexercised rights for a maximum amount of EUR 113.5 million, while Cdp Equity, the shipbuilding group's reference shareholder, will subscribe pro-rata to EUR 295.8 million of the capital increase.

Meanwhile, Fincantieri and Viking signed contracts for the construction of two cruise ships that will be based on the characteristics of previously built ships. The ships will be delivered between 2028 and 2029. The value of the agreement has been described as 'large', which means, in the cruise industry, between 500 million and one billion euros.