Emmanuel Macron: President of France

The French state on Wednesday said it would nationalise the STX France shipyard if Italy does not accept its offer to split STX’s capital equally.

It put down a marker on the limits of economic liberalism under new President Emmanuel Macron.

The threat raises the stakes in a standoff over the shipyard’s fate, the only one in France with facilities large enough to build aircraft carriers.

Fincantieri agreed in May to pay 79.5 million euros (92.6 million dollars) for two-thirds of STX France, which is being sold following the collapse of South Korean parent STX.

However, the Italian bid has raised fears for French jobs at the Saint-Nazaire site on the Atlantic Coast.

French Economy Minister Bruno Maire said the nationalisation would give the state more time to find a better shareholder deal.

He said even if its temporary, it would mark the first major state intervention in the corporate world by Macron’s government, which was elected on a pro-business platform.

Italian interests rejected the French proposal for ownership of STX France to be split equally between Italian state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri and Paris.

Both Fincantieri Chief Executive Giuseppe Bono and Italian Industry Minister Carlo Calenda raised the prospect that Fincantieri could walk away from the deal if France backed away from conditions agreed under the former government of President Francois Hollande.

“We are Europeans and on STX we cannot accept being treated worse than the Koreans,” Bono said on a conference call in reference to the shipyard’s previous majority owner.

>Italian Economy Minister Pier Padoan later took a more conciliatory tone, saying Italy was open to changing the terms of the deal, but insisted Fincantieri must have control.

“We have offered to listen to the new government’s requirements, but there is no reason why Fincantieri should give up a majority stake and control of the French company.”

(Reuters/NAN)