Leonardo-Finmeccanica Hits Back at Indian Blacklist Move

Leonardo-Finmeccanica today hit back at the Indian government’s move to blacklist the company over the AgustaWestland bribery scandal.

"Despite the context of uncertainty, Leonardo-Finmeccanica has over the past few years continued to supply India with the components and services essential to ensuring the operation of platforms and equipment for the country’s armed forces," a statement by the company said.

However, the company said that it “will not refrain from assessing the situation given the limited size of the on-going business in the country.”

India is an interesting market for Leonardo-Finmeccanica, and therefore the Company hopes that an agreed and transparent solution is found as soon as possible, in order to shed light on current initiatives and future business opportunities, the statement added.

Referring to various media reports concerning the initiation of a blacklisting process by the Indian Government, Leonardo-Finmeccanica acknowledges the statements made by the Indian Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, even though to date it has not received any official communication from the delegated government authorities.

However, exposure of Leonardo-Finmeccanica’s business to India is very marginal, since over the past few years no new orders coming from the country have been included in Leonardo-Finmeccanica’s budget forecast.

In particular, the contract for the supply of torpedoes was never formally signed and therefore never included in Leonardo-Finmeccanica's backlog.  In fact, Leonardo-Finmeccanica 2016 Financial Guidance and the objectives already announced in the industrial plan are fully confirmed.

Since the appointment of the current senior management in 2014, Leonardo-Finmeccanica has introduced extensive and stringent procedures of corporate governance and compliance, including an anti-corruption code and whistleblowing measures.

The statement said that Leonardo-Finmeccanica is ahead of “some important suppliers to the Indian Ministry of Defence” in terms of ranking of defence companies committed to anti-corruption, as highlighted in the Anti-Corruption Index 2015 produced by Transparency International.