Leonardo's chairman on Tuesday rowed back on comments he made about a possible merger with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, dismissing them as a light-hearted quip. Stefano Pontecorvo floated the idea of a future combination between the two state-controlled groups at a business conference in Milan on Monday.
The chair of the Italian defence and aerospace group was addressing an audience that included Claudio Cisilino, Fincantieri’s executive vice-president for operations.
"I made a quip, in clearly joking tones, about a possible merger between Leonardo and Fincantieri," Pontecorvo, a retired career diplomat, said in a statement.
The remarks, "do not reflect any hypothesis currently under consideration and there are no formal files or dossiers relating to potential industrial operations" between the two firms, he added.
Leonardo and Fincantieri cooperate on several programmes, but past discussions over deeper industrial integration have stalled amid political issues and diverging business priorities.
(Reporting by Cristina Carlevaro, editing by Alvise Armellini)
