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Italy's Finmeccanica to sell rail transport business to Japan's Hitachi

Xinhua, February 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Italian aerospace and defense group Finmeccanica on Tuesday announced it signed binding agreements for the sale of its rail transport business to Japanese multinational conglomerate Hitachi.

Hitachi will purchase the current business of AnsaldoBreda with the exclusion of some revamping activities and certain residual contracts, and the entire interest owned by Finmeccanica in Ansaldo STS, equal to approximately 40 percent of the share capital, the firm said in a statement.

The simultaneous closing of the transactions, expected later this year, should bring Finmeccanica's net debt down by 600 million euros (681.11 million U.S dollars). The planned purchase price for Ansaldo STS was 9.65 euros a share resulting in a total of 773 million euros subject to possible downward adjustment.

"The sale of the rail transport business is a key step in the execution of our industrial plan, aimed at focusing and strengthening the group in the core business-hi-tech aerospace, defense and security," Finmeccanica CEO and general manager Mauro Moretti said.

"This acquisition complements Hitachi's strategy to grow our social innovation business, combining IT technology with our sound infrastructure solutions," Hitachi chairman and CEO Hiroaki Nakanishi commented.

Ansaldo STS is a leading transportation systems technology company specialized in signaling equipment and control systems for railways and underground railways..

AnsaldoBreda has years of experience in the field of rail vehicles, mass transit and high speed trains. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars) Endit