Bono: “French election weighs on STX”

Genoa - The Chinese ideograms ‘Sheng Shì Gng Zh Hao’ (“Great Spirit”) are written on the ship’s stern, marking the Chinese name for the Majestic Princess, the first cruise ship built in the West for the Chinese market. Built by Fincantieri, in Monfalcone, the ship was delivered yesterday to Princess Cruises, one of the Carnival Group’s brands, the largest cruise ship operator in the world. The new ship boasts a number of venues that have been specially designed to appeal to Chinese passengers, including karaoke rooms and a wide array of restaurants. The 145,000 gross tonne Majestic Princess is also the largest cruise ship ever built in Italy, and can carry 4,250 passengers. Therefore, yesterday’s ceremony was an important occasion; meanwhile Genoa is abuzz with the leaked news of the impending arrival in Sestri Ponente, in his usual grand style, of Sir Richard Branson, who in November will visit the construction of the first ship for his Virgin Cruises brand. Attending yesterday’s ceremony, alongside Carnival’s president, Micky Arison, and Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni, was Giuseppe Bono, the CEO of Fincantieri; looking satisfied with the volume of his company’s order book (standing at 24 billion), which on Wednesday, with the approval of the 2016 balance sheet, rose to its highest level ever; and Bono expressed his certainty of further growth in the course of the year “to the 30-billion mark”, in other words new orders are on the horizon. It was inevitable that STX France was mentioned: the Italian company’s entrance in the management of the leading French shipyard, and Fincantieri’s direct competitor, is an issue in the election campaign, ahead of French presidential elections in May. “Negotiations are still under way, naturally we’re confident in the soundness of our industrial plan,” said Bono, “and the acquisition will go ahead provided all the conditions that will allow us to add value to what we’re already constructing at Fincantieri are present.” Nevertheless, the upcoming elections are clearly not an element of strength on Italy’s side: “Negotiations are negotiations.... Each side has its own interests, for us, it’s the industrial side. The French also have their own industrial interests, and as an election campaign is underway, clearly we can expect the issues of competition to be brought up. Regardless,” concluded Bono, “there’s no outright war.” He ventured to call himself satisfied that “we’re taking the role of predators and not prey. Fincantieri’s interest in the acquisition of STX France is so that we can participate in the consolidation of European industry, which is an extremely important notion, we want, however, our role to be the leading one.” Finally, Bono recalled that “the Italian government has always been on our side. It’s something natural, to want to protect one’s assets. But we’ve had to struggle every single step of the way, free gifts don’t exist.”