Protracted administration ends as Piaggio Aerospace sold to Turkey’s Baykar
December 27, 2024
A buyer has been confirmed for Italian aerospace company Piaggio, bringing to an end a protracted administration period already extended twice, with UAS manufacturer Baykar MakinaSanavi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi emerging as the successful of three “definitive and binding offers… for the purchase of all the company’s complexes”. These include Piaggio Aero Industries and Piaggio Aviation.
After “careful comparative evaluation of the three offers received,” the commissioner trio deemed Baykar’s offer “the most suitable to guarantee the interests of the employees and creditors of Piaggio Aero and Piaggio Aviation and to relaunch the Group’s industrial prospects,” revealed the Italian Ministry of Business.
“We are proud to lead Piaggio Aerospace into the future, an icon of Italian aviation with 140 years of tradition,” commented Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar. “With a shared vision and a common commitment, we will work to preserve Piaggio’s historical identity, enhance its production capacity and promote employment growth in Italy, combining innovation and respect for roots.”
With Piaggio Aerospace having entered ‘extraordinary administration’ proceedings (an Italian insolvency restructuring process) in December 2018, the “positive resolution” to this “dispute” was welcomed by the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Senator Adolfo Urso. “After six years of waiting, we are giving Piaggio Aerospace a future, a strategic asset for our country, with a long-term production perspective, safeguarding corporate complexes and workforce,” he explained on 27 December.
The turboprop producer was forced to file for insolvency when its major shareholder of the previous three years, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, withdrew its support. In November 2018, Piaggio stated that despite the “significant financial contribution made over the years by the shareholder, the key fundamental assumptions of the restructuring plan approved in 2017 have not materialised” – leading to the difficult conclusion that the company was “no longer financially sustainable”.
Last year, the Italian government extended the deadline for the administration’s conclusion until May 2025; itself a previous extension to May 2024. Speaking in May 2023, the extraordinary commissioners explained that their objective was “identifying the best industrial solution in the shortest possible time, finding a prospective buyer, even at the international level that can guarantee operational continuity, maintenance of employment, specific know-how and financial stability, as well as recognise the company’s fair value”.
Of the double-digit number of companies believed to have initially expressed an interest, five bidders from three continents subsequently passed the due diligence phase and, having received authorisation from the Italian Ministry for Economic finance, were invited to submit offers in 2021 – something described by extraordinary commissioner of Piaggio Aerospace Vincenzo Nicastro as “a very positive result”. Four of these five submitted non-binding offers by the March deadline. Ultimately, however, “in the context of the latest open procedure for the identification of a buyer,” three finalists remained.
Piaggio has continued to operate throughout its administration (under the guidance of administrators Carmelo Consentino, Vincenzo Nicastro and Gianpaolo Davide Rossetti), building what the Italian government described as a “significant order portfolio”. This includes orders for its P.180 Avanti turboprop, alongside engines, aerospace components and structural components.
During its administration, Piaggio also developed a more advanced version of its signature P.180 Avanti EVO+, with the first three of 15 units delivered to the Italian Armed Forces last month. One more new-build and one further retrofitted unit is expected to follow by February 2025.
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