ROME — Italian state shipyard Fincantieri has completed the purchase of Italian torpedo firm WASS for a price that could reach €415 million ($428 million) as it strengthens its undersea activity.
Fincantieri started talks last year to buy WASS from fellow Italian state-controlled group Leonardo, which has been seeking to sell the firm for a number of years as it focuses on aerospace activities.
Fincantieri, which builds cruise ships, naval vessels and submarines, has for its part being bulking up its undersea business, from sensors to drones, as threats to the world’s sub-sea infrastructure increase.
“With this acquisition Fincantieri integrates unique expertise in underwater acoustic technologies and advanced weapons systems, consolidating its leadership in the underwater domain,” the firm said in a statement.
Fincantieri said it had paid Leonardo a fixed price of €287 million, which could rise to up to €415 million depending on WASS’s 2024 results, which have yet to be announced. In 2023, the firm generated revenue of approximately €160 million.
Fincantieri predicts the global undersea defense business will see €94 billion in spending between 2024 and 2030. WASS holds a fifty-percent share in the GEIE EuroTorp consortium with Naval Group and Thales, which builds the MU90 light torpedo, and operates at facilities in Livorno and Pozzuoli in Italy.
WASS, or Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei, traces its origins to Englishman John Whitehead, who developed the world’s first effective self propelled torpedo in 1875 in Fiume – then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, now in Croatia. In 1995 the firm became part of the Italian Finmeccanica group, which has since been renamed Leonardo.
Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.
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