Japanese conglomerate Hitachi has submitted an offer to acquire Italy-based Finmeccanica’s rail transport engineering company, AnsaldoBreda, and its 40% stake in signalling supplier Ansaldo STS.
Finmeccanica decided to sell its subsidiary in order to cut the €4.8bn ($6.1bn) debt and focus on its aerospace and defence businesses.
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Last month, the company had shortlisted Hitachi and China’s CNR Corporation for the sale.
However, the Chinese train manufacturer had withdrawn its bid, leaving the Japanese company as the sole remaining bidder, reported Nikkei.
It will now start the analysis phase of the offer in order to begin the negotiation process.
Nikkei has also reported that Hitachi will likely offer $1.7bn for the assets.
With four plants and 2,300 workers, AnsaldoBreda offers driverless metro trains and it currently working on 50 Frecciarossa ETR 1000-model high-speed trains for Ferrovie under a €1.5bn contract shared with Canada’s Bombardier.
The company was established in 2001 through a merger between Ansaldo Trasporti and Breda Costruzioni Railway.
The manufacturing plants are located in Pistoia, Naples, Reggio Calabria and Palermo in Italy.
Headquartered in Genoa, Ansaldo STS offers design, implementation and management of systems, services for signalling and supervision of railway and urban traffic.
The rail technology firm employs more than 4,000 people in 28 different countries.
