Italy to Sell Stake in Fincantieri

Building the Ruby Princess, (c) Fincantieri – Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A

ROME, Jan 10 (Reuters) – The Italian government will go through with plans to sell a minority stake in Fincantieri within the next few months, the chairman of the state-owned shipbuilding group said on Friday.

“It’s one of the companies that will have a non-controlling stake placed on the market before the summer,” Vincenzo Petrone told reporters at an event in Rome.

Petrone did not specify the exact size of the stake to be sold or where the shares would be listed. His comments follow confirmation last month that the government intended to sell a minority stake in the group as part of a privatisation drive aimed at cutting into its huge public debt.

Italy has a public debt expected to stand at 132.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2014, a level surpassed only by Greece in the European Union, and is counting on privatisation revenues to rein it in.

In November, Prime Minister Enrico Letta announced plans to raise as much as 12 billion euros ($16.4 billion) through the sale of stakes in public entities including oil and gas group Eni, air traffic controller Enav and Fincantieri.

On Thursday, officials met representatives from Poste Italiane to discuss plans to sell a stake of up to 40 percent in the state post office operator. ($1 = 0.7314 euros) (Reporting by Paolo Biondi; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Pravin Char)

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