The first board meeting of Naviris, the joint venture between Fincantieri and Naval Group, took place. This partnership cements the shared desire of the two companies to build a future of excellence for the shipbuilding industry and Navies.The Alliance is the natural evolution of the historical partnership already existing between two world leaders. With more than twenty years of cooperation, Naval Group and Fincantieri have already achieved success together: as early as the 1990s with the Horizon air defence destroyer programme (four ships) and with the FREMM multi-mission frigate program ongoing since 2005 (twenty vessels).

Naviris paves the way to the consolidation of European naval defence in response to the increasing pressure of worldwide competitors. Through Naviris, Fincantieri and Naval Group are pooling their strengths to develop a new strategic capability and respond in an innovative way to the needs of their customers.

The two companies have established that Naviris is a 50/50 joint venture. With the head office located in Genoa with a subsidiary in Ollioules, the Naviris team will focus on bi-national and export projects. Underlining the strategic and developmental will attributed by Fincantieri and Naval Group to the operation, Giuseppe Bono has been appointed Chairman and Hervé Guillou Member of the Board. Claude Centofanti, Chief Executive Officer and Enrico Bonetti, Chief Operational Officer, will run the joint venture. Parent companies are equally represented on the Board of Directors.

Naviris’ objective is to create value for its customers through the following key areas:

• Common R&D projects
• Worldwide proposals
• Prime Contractorship and Design Authority 
• Procurement optimizationNaviris foresees export and common French-Italians opportunities, such as the first studies for the Mid-Life Upgrade of the French and Italian Horizon-class destroyers, as well as European projects, such as the development of the European Patrol Corvette light frigates.“We are grateful to have received the unconditional support of our governments for the creation of a new European leader for the strategic sector of naval defense. Together, we will accelerate our technological advance and maintain our key differentiators by combining our R&D capabilities, renovating the products for the benefit of our customers. Naviris opens the way to a real construction of European naval defence” declared the two CEOs of Fincantieri and Naval Group, Giuseppe Bono and Hervé Guillou.