Abu Dhabi-based defense and technology company Edge Group and Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri have signed an agreement to form a shipbuilding joint venture called Maestral, which has already booked a contract from the United Arab Emirates Coast Guard. The order, worth $435 million, calls for the delivery of 10 offshore patrol vessels.
Edge, which holds a 51 percent stake in Maestral, will have the prime rights to non-NATO contracts and some strategic orders of choice NATO members, with a potential market value of $33 billion.
Pierroberto Folgiero, Fincantieri CEO and managing director, expressed pride in announcing Maestral and its first major order just a few months after the company started collaborating with Edge in February.
“Today’s signing represents concrete evidence of how this joint venture is an industrial platform of great value, which will allow us not only to seize the opportunities arising in a strategic market such as the UAE but also to further develop our commercial capabilities,” Folgiero said.
Faisal Al Bannai, chairman of Edge, pointed out that Maestral’s first OPV order came just three months after the joint venture’s announcement. “Not only does this demonstrate the speed with which Edge and its partners can operate and the resources we can mobilize, but it also fully underscores our strategy of international export growth through mutually beneficial partnerships,” he stressed.