Fincantieri, the Italian state owned shipbuilder, it increased its profit to more than €15 million last year from €9 million in 2011. Operating profit (EBITDA) remained stable at €137 million or 5.7% of revenues that also remained little changed at €2.83 billion, it said in a statement.
"Commercially, Fincantieri succeeded in making the best of the available opportunities, finalizing agreements for new orders, including options, worth a total of €6.5 billion which also include all the cruise industry’s orders for new prototype ships. This figure includes €1.4 billion in finalized contracts, while the remaining agreements are all subject to finalization of the related financial packages."
In particular, in the merchant vessels business unit, contracts were signed for the construction of two cruise ships for Viking Ocean Cruises and an order was secured from Société des traversiers du Québec in Canada for the construction of a dual-fuel latest generation ferry featuring an innovative propulsion system.
With reference to the reorganization plan, contained in the national agreement signed at the end of 2011 with the Ministry of Labour and the majority of trade unions, the Group has aimed, on the one hand, to rebalance its workforce for the weaker order backlog (333 staff have left the parent company while an average of 1,463 employees have been temporarily laid off), and, on the other, to meet its business diversification objectives.
