The battle for Ferretti Group has been ongoing for over a year, with this looking to be nearing its end with the shareholders meeting held on the fourteen May. The meeting saw two important figures from the last twelve years; Alberto Galassi and Piero Ferrari depart the group's management, and the Chinese keeping and showing a tight grip of it's Ferretti Group ownership.
It will be interesting were Ferretti Group will move from now on, with both Galassi and Ferrari doing a brilliant job in moving the group away from its troubled waters of 2012, and to new growth heights of recent years. This did not happen by coincidence, it happened because apart understanding financials both understood the product, and developed it accordingly. I would have said it was near impossible to challenge Norberto Ferretti in product development, but Galassi and Ferrari came very close.
The new appointed CEO Stassi Anastassov as chosen by the Chinese ownership does not seem to have any boating and yachting in his curriculum, he has mostly a battery background, and was previous CEO for Duracell. The same goes for the fully changed boardroom, which is now mostly filled by Chinese personnel, who again do not seem to have boating and yachting experience. It will be interesting how Ferretti Group will move forward from now on.
Ultimately this ending was very different from the one which was being speculated since the beginning of the year, with KKCG Maritime of Czech entrepreneur Mr. Komarek reported to take over Ferretti Group, also because the Chinese ownership had reduced it's stake in recent years, from 75% of 2012 to the current 39.5% it holds today, and were also reported to have lost interest in it.
Is this the end of the take over bid by KKCG for Ferretti Group? Probably not, as the news are saying that the Chinese did not fully respect the financial obligations and rules in this management overhaul, with the Italian Government reportedly ready to use the Golden Power, which is possible in this case also because Ferretti Group has the Ferretti Security Division which caters in the design, production, sales and servicing of naval platforms built specifically for Security and Defence clients including those of NATO.
Posts
