the ceo Giuseppe Marino takes over the helm of Hitachi Rail-Corriere.it

The resignation of Giuseppe Marino, CEO of Ansaldo Energia, announced on 1 February 2023, fell relatively like a bolt from the blue. The manager, appointed to lead the company owned by Cassa depositi e prestiti (88% through Cdp Equity) and from Shanghai Electric (12%), decided to accept the offer to move as CEO of Hitachi Rail in London. He leaves a group that has been waiting for months for the 550 million capital increase, necessary in a difficult moment. It was Marino himself who announced to the unions last year that if the capital increase had not been launched (by CDP, it is very unlikely that the downsized Chinese partner would participate) by 2022 he would have resigned. The resignation has arrived, with a new position since April.

Times

The manager will remain in office until the end of March with all the members of the board, to ensure business continuityhe wrote in a note. Where it specifies: The recovery plan continues without changes according to the path traced by me and by the board of directors with the support of the shareholder Cdp. The objective is to carry out the recapitalization maneuver by 31 March. At the end of the month, a CDP board of directors could decide on the recapitalization and on that occasion the name of Marino’s successor could be presented.

The new summit

Cassa depositi e prestiti is now looking for a new managing director (apparently with Spencer Stuart as head hunter) and confirms its willingness to proceed both with the recovery plan and with the capital increase, expected since last year, while the unions, which they had called a unitary strike to urge it, they are pushing for a solution soon. We hope that Marino’s exit is the premise for more careful industrial policy management – says Antonio Apa, coordinator of Uilm Liguria – we are confident that the capital increase will arrive by the end of March to remedy the difficulties. In recent months, 70 people have left Ansaldo, including 25 engineers due to the company’s economic uncertainty. Already the half-yearly report in August with a loss of 442 million made the situation clear. The half-yearly press release underlined the impossibility of achieving the financial objectives outlined in the 2022 budget. And net debt to third parties, which rose to Euro 787 million, compared to Euro 619 million in December 2021.

Banks and the Chinese partner

Giuseppe Marino, who concluded the agreement with the banks for the extension of Ansaldo’s credit lines from 2023 to 2027 (among others with Unicredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, Carige and Banco Bpm) and the extension from 2024 to 2028 of the maturity of the bond, he had previously worked at Hitachi in Tokyo. He was appointed to Ansaldo Energia at the end of 2019 by the CDP under the management of Fabrizio Palermo, when a possible convergence under Fincantieri was also being discussed for the Genoese company. He inherited large orders such as those for the gas plants of Marghera, Tavazzano, Presenzano, Iren Turbigo. With Covid, work has been slowed down, with the postponement of deliveries which has led to additional costs and delays in sales. The way forward on nuclear power (the appointment of Riccardo Casale, ex Sogin, as CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare in January) both with decommissioning and with clean nuclear power and diversification with renewable sources requires a long time. And the decision to reduce the share of Shanghai Electric in the capital has reduced the outlet on the large Chinese market, hungry for gas-fired plants and in the past developed by the former CEO of Ansaldo, Giuseppe Zampini.