TRIESTE – Cruise ships, underwater, icebreakers and technological innovation are the pillars of Fincantieri’s industrial strategy outlined by its chief executive officer and general manager, Pierroberto Folgiero, during the shareholders’ meeting held today in Trieste, which also approved the group’s 2025 financial statements.
On the economic front, the meeting gave the go-ahead to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025, with net profit of 97.46 million euros. Shareholders resolved to allocate 5% of the profit, equal to 4.87 million euros, to the legal reserve and the remaining 92.59 million euros to the extraordinary reserve. The consolidated financial statements were also presented, together with the sustainability statement drawn up under the new European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
The shareholders’ meeting also appointed the new Board of Statutory Auditors for the 2026-2028 three-year period. It also approved the authorisation to purchase and dispose of treasury shares, the amendment to the “Performance Share Plan 2025-2027” for management – increasing the number of beneficiaries from 100 to 150 – and the issue, by 31 December 2026, of up to 1.96 million ordinary shares to serve the second cycle of the 2022-2024 share plan for group employees.
In his speech, Folgiero underlined the solidity of the cruise market: «The cruise sector is solid and growing. Today we work with all cruise shipowners». Alongside cruise ships, the manager identified specialised vessels and icebreakers as one of the segments expected to see strong demand in the coming years.
Strong attention was also placed on the underwater business, considered strategic from both an industrial and geopolitical standpoint. «The Mediterranean will be a huge laboratory for the underwater sector», Folgiero explained, referring to the growing centrality of submarine cables, extraction activities linked to rare earths and the presence of submarines, «increasingly Russian ones». According to the manager, Italy has longstanding expertise in underwater activities that Fincantieri aims to strengthen through the national underwater hub developed with the Ministry of Defence, also supporting start-ups and technological development.
During the meeting, the CEO also presented a new research project dedicated to workplace safety and the materials used in shipyards, created – he recalled – also from a reflection shared with the late chairman Claudio Graziano. The study will analyse the future impact of technologies and materials currently in use, with the aim of preventing cases similar to that of asbestos. For the project, Fincantieri has involved a university specialised in both materials technology and occupational medicine.
