The sale of Piaggio Aerospace has stalled, with the company to reopen to possible bids in the coming weeks. (Piaggio Aerospace/Paul Cordwell)
The sale of Italy's Piaggio Aerospace to an undisclosed buyer has stalled, company officials confirmed to Janes on 7 December.
The company's Extraordinary Commissioner, Vincenzo Nicastro, met with trade union representatives following local press reports that the sale had been “interrupted”. According to Nicastro, no binding offer was received from the unnamed sole bidder. The bidder had been selected in September to begin exclusive negotiations to acquire the company following “long and careful screening”.
“The potential investor made us just aware [of] what the conditions would be for the purchase: these conditions were not consistent with the tender rules they had formally accepted and were linked to events [that were] difficult to realise. In agreement with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, we decided therefore to start discussions with other parties interested in purchasing the company assets,” Nicastro said in a statement.
A further advertisement for bidders for the company's assets will be published in the coming weeks, with the overall process of selecting potential buyers being shortened as existing documentation and company data is already prepared.
“We shall fix tight deadlines for both the due diligence phase and the submission of binding offers,” Nicastro said.
Piaggio Aerospace manufactures the P.180 Avanti EVO business aircraft, as well as developing an unmanned variant of the aircraft known as the P.1HH HammerHead. A multirole patrol aircraft variant designed for aerial surveillance and patrol was being developed in collaboration with the United Arab Emirates' (UAE's) ADASI.
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