Fincantieri Acquires Comms Equipment Supplier

Fincantieri said it has acquired a majority share in communications equipment supplier Support Logistic Services (SLS) as the Italian shipbuilding group continues its push to diversify and expand its product and service portfolio.

Rome-based SLS, which produces, installs and maintens radar, satellite and radio communications systems for military and civil applications, will be added under Fincantieri's information technology and electronics subsidiary INSIS, part of the group's newborn Electronics, Systems & Software Division. With 2019 revenues amounting to about 9 million euros, expected to further increase this year, almost half of the company’s 35 employees are engineers, systems analysts, design engineers and qualified technicians.

Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri, said, “This operation fits into our far-reaching strategy to consolidate and safeguard a supply chain made up of small and medium-sized enterprises. A dedicated corporate division will coordinate the various companies, which will continue to operate independently according to their intrinsic business approaches. This will allow them to retain key resources, expanding the pool of expertise of our group.”

In recent years, Fincantieri has undertaken several actions to diversify and expand its product and service portfolio, steering it toward higher added-value solutions.

The latest acquisition, Fincantieri said, will give the group direct access to a pool of highly qualified resources, to set up a high-technology center of excellence, while, at the same time, enabling SLS to further boost its industrial growth and its turnover.