Iveco sells commercial vehicles to Tata and Defence division to Leonardo
Leonardo Cingolani's CEO: 'The purchase was finalised in the last few hours'.
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Key points
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Agreement between Tata Motors and Iveco. The agreement envisages 'the creation of a commercial vehicle group with the necessary scope, product portfolio and industrial capacity to establish itself as a global leader in this dynamic sector'. The voluntary tender offer - for a total consideration of approximately 3.8 billion for Iveco, excluding defence activities and net proceeds from defence activities - will be launched by a new limited liability company under Dutch law that is wholly owned by Tata. Completion of the tender offer is conditional on the separation of the defence activities and concerns ordinary shares issued after the separation of activities.
Iveco's Defence division was instead acquired by Leonardo. The countervalue of the transaction in terms of enterprise value was 1.7 billion. The company announced this, emphasising that it thus 'consolidates its role as a reference player in the European land defence sector', with an agreement that 'strengthens the joint commercial positioning'.
'The acquisition of Iveco Defence is a fundamental step in the development of our inorganic growth strategy to support the full implementation of our industrial plan,' commented Leonardo's CEO, Roberto Cingolani.
Government: we support quality foreign investment, we will follow the operation
.The government 'supports quality foreign investments and will closely follow the evolution of the operation, to ensure the protection of employment, strategic resources and the production chain'. This was stated by sources at Palazzo Chigi with regard to the operations linked to the Iveco group, emphasising that "the merger project" with India's Tata Motors "represents recognition of the value of Italian technologies". The executive, continue the same sources, 'remains willing to collaborate with all those involved to favour a result that is useful to our nation. In any case, the government will be vigilant to protect every strategic asset in accordance with the regulations in force'.
It was announced today 'an important industrial operation that opens up new growth prospects for the Iveco group, a historic Italian reality, and for its workers, attracting the interest of Tata Motors, a large Indian multinational group' with a project that envisages 'that the production facilities will remain in Italy, maintaining direct employment, induced activities and supply chains. No relocations are envisaged, on the contrary, we are aiming at solid international expansion through collaboration with one of the world's leading vehicle manufacturers, without operational overlaps but with clear opportunities for growth," government sources go on to emphasise, recalling that India is a "strategic partner" with which "Italy recently signed a joint plan to strengthen economic and industrial cooperation. This agreement is among the first concrete results of that shared path'.
