ROME — Italian defense giant Leonardo aims to set up its long planned aerostructures joint venture with an unnamed partner by June, CEO Roberto Cingolani has said, promising the new firm will be one of the world’s top three of its kind.
“Our partner is both financial and industrial, and they have a strong demand for civil as well as military aviation components, rotorcraft and potentially space in the near future,” Cingolani said.
He was speaking at a conference call with analysts after Leonardo announced preliminary results for 2025 which included new orders of €23.8 billion ($28.09 billion), up 14.5% and beating forecasts, helped by work on the sixth-generation GCAP program.
Revenues rose 11% to €19.5 billion, also beating targets, as Leonardo profits from rising defense spending around the world.
The firm’s civilian aerostructures unit has however been a loss maker in recent years, hurt by a slowdown in production of the Boeing 787 for which it supplies structures.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has been widely rumored to be the would-be partner in talks to come on board the unit.
Last year Cingolani said the deal would be signed off by the end of 2025, but on Wednesday he told analysts it would now happen by June, since an exclusivity clause in the talks expired then.
“The idea is to create a joint venture which will be 50-50 at the beginning, an international company,” he said, adding that the partner could then increase its stake as staff were trained, new components were certified and activity was transferred by Leonardo.
“We will transfer some technology to the partner’s plants so we expect a smooth transition,” he said, adding, “The timing depends on results.”
Leonardo’s market for aerostructures would grow threefold thanks to the joint venture, he said. “This will open to big markets in their domain,” he said, adding, “We will be in the top three in the world.”
Cingolani said, “I expect to see a positive impact on the 2026 balance sheet.”
The Italian CEO said Leonardo was also concluding its purchase of Italian vehicle builder Iveco Defence Vehicles (IDV), initiated last year, and was now discussing selling IDV’s military trucks unit to Germany’s Rheinmetall.
“The truck business has good margins, 12% to 13%, and there is an interesting backlog,” Cingolani said.
Leonardo and Rheinmetall are already planning to build 1,050 new infantry fighting vehicles for the Italian army based on the Rheinmetall Lynx, and 132 tanks based on Rheinmetall’s under-development Panther KF51.
Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.
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