Macron nationalises France’s biggest shipyards to block sale to Italy’s Fincantieri

THE French president Emmanuel Macron has temporarily nationalised France’s biggest shipyards to prevent an Italian takeover, ripping up a prior agreement in a protectionist move that has infuriated Rome and startled EU capitals.

The government blocked the sale of STX France to the Italian group Fincantieri in order to “defend the strategic interests of France”, using a “pre-emption” right to buy all shares. The aim is to safeguard 7,000 jobs in the Atlantic port of Saint-nazaire and ensure that the French state has a controlling influence over military infrastructure for building warships and aircraft carriers.

It is the first big industrial decision since Mr Macron took office in May and raises questions about his free market principles and pro-european rhetoric. During the election campaign he struck up a very different tone. “Protectionism is warfare, it’s a lie,” he said. The reaction in Italy has been consternation.

The financial daily Il Sole said Mr Macron’s actions were simply staggering. “The more the weeks pass, the more that Macronism shows an old face, that of an unchanging France that has dirigiste, statist, protectionist, and sovereignist instincts – ‘European’ only on alternate days, when it suits the alchemy of power,” it said. The exact motive for the intervention is unclear. STX France was previously owned by the distressed Korean group STX and is already in foreign hands.

There have been concerns in Paris that Fincantieri’s close relationship with China could make it a stalking horse for Beijing.

“It is a temporary decision to give us more time for a better deal. It is not desirable that the naval yards of Saintnazaire should remain under the control of the state,” said Bruno Le Maire, the economy minister.

It is a twisted story for great shipyards that built the Queen Mary II and Harmony of the Seas, the world’s biggest cruise ship. Business is flourishing. The problem is that creditors of Korea’s STX demanded the sale of the French unit to meet debts.

Mr Macron bowed to pressure from protectionist voices and demanded changes in the deal to give the French state a 50pc holding and a de facto veto.

This comes close to flouting EU single market law on takeovers, though there can be exceptions on national security grounds.

Carlo Pier Padoan, Italy’s finance minister, said he would listen politely to the French side but insisted that it remains unacceptable to prevent an Italian company taking majority control of a French company.