Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri raised its 2026 core profit and leverage guidance on Thursday after reporting a 10.9 per cent rise in nine-month earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), driven by higher profitability in its shipbuilding business and growth in the underwater segment.
The state-controlled group now sees 2026 EBITDA of €715 million to €725 million, up from previous guidance of €700 million to €710 million.
It now forecasts an improved adjusted net debt/EBITDA ratio of one, including February's capital increase, compared to 1.3 in the previous guidance.
It confirmed all the other targets for the rest of the year.
Shares in Fincantieri dropped as much as 6.9 per cent after the results, but later erased losses almost entirely, losing only around 0.6 per cent at 14:52 GMT.
A Milan-based trader interpreted the initial sharp share price fall as "the classical sell-on-news".
EBITDA through September rose to €511 million from €461 million in the same period last year, with the margin improving to 7.7 per cent from 6.9 per cent in 2025, as gains in shipbuilding and underwater activities offset slightly lower revenue.
Total backlog was up 14.9 per cent to €72.6 billion from €63.2 billion at the end of 2025 and almost 7.9 times revenue recorded last year.
Orders in the first nine months of the year were down to €9.7 billion from €16 billion in the same period in 2025.
(Reporting by Giulia Segreti in Rome, Mirko Miorelli in Gdansk, and Giancarlo Navach in Milan; Editing by Keith Weir and Alvise Armellini)