With Iveco Defence up for sale, Italy may lose a key military supplier

ROME — Prospective buyers are lining up to acquire Iveco Defence Vehicles - Italy’s biggest military vehicle maker - and the Italian government may struggle to stop it being sold overseas, a source has told Defense News.

The chief supplier of fighting vehicles to the Italian army, IDV could be sold by year’s end by its parent company Iveco, which is owned by the Exor Group, which is the largest shareholder in car maker Stellantis and controlled by the Italian Agnelli family.

On May 15 Iveco said IDV would be spun off this year, with a possible sale to follow.

“By the end of the year the spin-off will start and in the meantime offers to buy the firm will be evaluated,” said a spokesperson.

“We have had preliminary offers from various strategic players,” said CFO Anna Tanganelli.

Last year IDV saw revenue rise by 15% to €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) as land-warfare budgets grow around the world in response to the Ukraine war.

One firm has publicly thrown its hat in the ring to date. On May 8, the CEO of Italian defense giant Leonardo, Roberto Cingolani, said Leonardo had put in a joint offer with Germany’s Rheinmetall.

Leonardo and Rheinmetall are already in business with a joint venture announced last year 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.

IDV also has a slice of the huge Italian vehicle order. In December it said it had signed a deal with Leonardo to take 12-15% of the development and production work on the deal, which has been valued at €23 billion.

Leonardo and IDV already had a longstanding joint venture in place, called CIO, which builds VBM wheeled fighting vehicles and wheeled Centauro tanks for the Italian army.

An industrial source said Leonardo offered to buy IDV for €750 million last year but was turned down. “They could have had it if they’d offered a billion, but they didn’t,” said the source.

Meanwhile, numerous firms from around the world are reportedly ready to put in offers for IDV, with Spanish media suggesting Spain‘s Indra is ready to pay €1 billion, while U.S. funds and French-German consortium KNDS also reportedly keen.

BAE Systems will be seen as possible bidder after it announced on Thursday a partnership between BAE Systems Hägglunds and IDV to offer its BvS10 all-terrain vehicle to the Italian army, with design and manufacturing to happen in Italy.

BAE already builds amphibious vehicles with IDV for the U.S. Marines.

The industrial source said however that given IDV’s ties to the Italian military and to Leonardo, there would be reluctance to see it sold to an overseas buyer.

“The Italian army and members of the government would like IDV to stay Italian,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

But Cingolani has suggested Leonardo will be reluctant to pay top dollar just to keep IDV Italian, and Exor will likely be seeking maximum profit on the sale of a firm which is flush with work, knowing the firms outside Europe are increasingly interested in buying EU businesses as the bloc builds up its defense war chest.

One solution being touted in the Italian media is that the Italian government use its so-called ‘Golden Power’ law, which can be used to control or block the sale of strategic Italian firms.

But an Italian expert on the law said it might not be applicable in the case of IDV.

“The law is usually used to impose conditions for a new buyer, as occurred when GE bought Italian firm Avio Aero, or to stop a purchase by a buyer considered potentially hostile. But there has never been a case when it was used to exclude one or more bidders in a group of bidders,” said the source, who declined to be named.

“If the Italian government, which has a controlling stake in Leonardo, blocks a sale to Indra for example, could that be legally challenged as market interference? Indra is not China,” said the source.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——据《防务新闻》报道，潜在买家正排队竞购意大利最大的军用车辆制造商依维柯防务车辆公司，意大利政府可能难以阻止该公司被出售到海外。

IDV是意大利军队的主要作战车辆供应商，其母公司依维柯(Iveco)可能在年底前将其出售。依维柯隶属于Exor集团，而Exor集团又是汽车制造商Stellantis的最大股东，并由意大利阿涅利家族控制。

5月15日，依维柯表示IDV将于今年分拆上市，随后可能会被出售。

一位发言人表示：“分拆工作将于年底前启动，与此同时，公司将评估收购要约。”

首席财务官安娜·坦加内利表示：“我们已经收到了来自多家战略合作伙伴的初步报价。”

去年，由于乌克兰战争导致世界各地陆战预算增加，IDV 的收入增长了 15%，达到 11 亿欧元（13 亿美元）。

迄今为止，只有一家公司公开表示参与竞标。5月8日，意大利国防巨头莱昂纳多公司首席执行官罗伯托·辛戈拉尼表示，莱昂纳多已与德国莱茵金属公司联合提出收购要约。

莱昂纳多和莱茵金属公司去年宣布成立合资企业，双方已开展业务，将为意大利陆军生产 1,050 辆基于莱茵金属“山猫”的新型步兵战车，以及 132 辆基于莱茵金属正在研发的“黑豹”KF51 坦克。

IDV也分得了意大利巨额汽车订单的一部分。去年12月，该公司宣布已与莱昂纳多签署协议，将承担该项价值230亿欧元的订单中12%至15%的研发和生产工作。

莱昂纳多和IDV公司此前已经成立了一家名为CIO的合资企业，为意大利军队生产VBM轮式战车和半人马座轮式坦克。

一位业内人士透露，莱昂纳多去年曾出价7.5亿欧元收购IDV，但遭到拒绝。“如果他们出价10亿欧元，就能成功收购，但他们没有。”该人士表示。

与此同时，据报道，来自世界各地的许多公司都准备对 IDV 提出收购要约，西班牙媒体称，西班牙的 Indra 准备支付 10 亿欧元，而美国基金和法德财团 KNDS 也据称对此很感兴趣。

BAE Systems 周四宣布 BAE Systems Hägglunds 与 IDV 合作，向意大利军队提供其 BvS10 全地形车，设计和制造将在意大利进行。此后，BAE Systems 将被视为可能的竞标者。

BAE 已经为美国海军陆战队生产 IDV 两栖车辆。

但业内人士表示，鉴于 IDV 与意大利军方和莱昂纳多集团的关系，他们不愿看到 IDV 被出售给海外买家。

“意大利军方和政府成员希望IDV保持意大利血统，”一位不愿透露姓名的消息人士表示，他之所以匿名谈论内部讨论，是因为涉及内部决策。

但辛戈拉尼表示，莱昂纳多不会愿意花高价仅仅为了保留 IDV 的意大利血统，而埃克索尔可能会寻求从这家业务繁忙的公司出售中获得最大利润，因为他们知道，随着欧盟不断扩充国防资金，欧洲以外的公司越来越有兴趣收购欧盟企业。

意大利媒体正在鼓吹的一种解决方案是，意大利政府利用其所谓的“黄金权力”法，该法可以用来控制或阻止意大利战略企业的出售。

但一位意大利法律专家表示，这可能不适用于IDV案件。

“这项法律通常用于对新买家施加条件，例如通用电气收购意大利公司Avio Aero时就使用了这项法律；或者用于阻止被认为可能构成敌意收购的买家进行收购。但从未有过用这项法律排除一个或多个竞标者的情况，”这位不愿透露姓名的消息人士表示。

“如果意大利政府（持有莱昂纳多公司的控股权）阻止该公司出售给英德拉集团，这是否会被以市场干预为由提起法律诉讼？英德拉集团毕竟不是中国，”消息人士说。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。