EDGE and Fincantieri Launch MAESTRAL With 400 Million Euro Order

EDGE Group has signed an agreement with Fincantieri to officially launch MAESTRAL, an Abu Dhabi-based shipbuilding joint venture (JV) between the two industry giants. First announced in February this year, the venture seeks to leverage the high global demand for the design and manufacture of cutting edge naval vessels. With EDGE’s 51 percent share of the venture, the company will receive priority to handle non-NATO orders and a portion of strategic orders from selected NATO member states. MAESTRAL will place emphasis on its sales, commercial operations and engineering for design and service while simultaneously developing the high-skill workforce at home and abroad.

Right off the bat, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Coast Guard placed a USD434 million order for 10 state-of-the-art 51m Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV). Dubbed the P51MR-class OPV, the vessel design is based on Fincantieri’s Saettia-class with extreme modularity, stability in rough sea condition as well as a low radar signal signature and its enhanced operational flexibility.

“In just three months since first announcing the creation of this unique venture with Fincantieri, we are now announcing a significant national order for these sophisticated OPVs, to be built both here at our shipyards in Abu Dhabi, and in Italy. Not only does this demonstrate the speed with which EDGE and its partners can operate, and the resources we can mobilise, but fully underscores our strategy of international export growth through mutually beneficial partnerships, the exchange of knowledge and expertise, and the continued pursuit of technological excellence through innovation. It also opens up opportunities for MAESTRAL to promote an extensive portfolio of diverse maritime solutions, including a complete series of technologically advanced vessels, to navies and coast guards around the world”, said EDGE Group Chairman Faisal Al Bannai.

Fincantieri’s CEO and Managing Director Pierroberto Folgiero added, “we are proud to announce the creation of MAESTRAL and a first major order since the start of our collaboration with EDGE Group. 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, thus creating new and important opportunities for growth and expansion in the international defence sector in connection with Abu Dhabi export platform.”-shp/adj/dl (Pix:EDGE, Fincantieri)