Turkish Baykar acquires Piaggio Aerospace

The Ministry of Business and Made in Italy has authorized the extraordinary commissioners of Piaggio Aero Industries and Piaggio Aviation – the two companies in extraordinary administration that operate under the Piaggio Aerospace brand – to proceed with the sale of all business complexes conducted to the Turkish company Baykar MakinaSanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi (“Baykar”), leading company in the development and production of UAV systems (unmanned aerial vehicles) and advanced aerospace technologies. Mimit made this known in a note.

A dispute that began in December 2018, when Piaggio Aerospace was admitted to the extraordinary administration procedure, is thus on the way to a positive resolution. As part of the latest open procedure for identifying a buyer, three definitive and binding offers were received from as many international industrial players for the purchase of all company complexes. After a careful comparative evaluation of the three offers received, explains the Ministry, the three commissioners considered that that of Baykar was 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. Baykar is committed to maintaining and enhancing both its aircraft production activities – including related technical, logistical and training support services – and its engine maintenance and engine component production activities.

“The relaunch of the company is guaranteed, with a clear and ambitious industrial vision”, commented Minister Adolfo Urso, who added that “after six years of waiting, let’s give a future back to Piaggio Aerospace, a strategic asset for our country, with a long-term production perspective, safeguarding corporate complexes and workforce”. The company in recent years – under the guidance of the Extraordinary Commissioners Carmelo Cosentino, Vincenzo Nicastro and Gianpaolo Davide Rossetti – has managed to build a significant order portfolio in all areas of business, therefore maintaining full operations for the entire period, continues the press release.

A management that has allowed Piaggio Aerospace to honor the commitments made with its customers, self-financing the activity without having to resort to the extraordinary redundancy fund or bank financing or public contributions. During the commissioner’s management, the company also developed a more advanced version of the P.180, deliveries of which to the main customer have already begun.

“The award of Piaggio Aero by the Turkish group Baykar could represent a new positive perspective for this important reality in the Italian aerospace sector, interrupting years of uncertainty”is the comment of Guglielmo Gambardella, Uilm national secretary. “We will ensure that Baykar keeps the commitments made to maintain and strengthen both the aircraft production activities and the engine maintenance and production of engine components activities – underlines Gambardella -. It is good that the commissioner management is overcome but there is The regret that no significant Italian business entity wanted to seriously believe in this industrial excellence. We remember that Piaggio Aerospace represents a fundamental partner of our defense system”.

“We are now looking forward with great interest to the development projects of the Turkish company for the valorization of the great professionalism present in the sites of Genoa and Savona in Villanova D’Albenga. We expect the convocation from Minister Urso as soon as possible to have more details on the transfer operation and in particular on the guarantees offered by Baykar”, concludes the trade unionist.

Giuseppe Cossiga, president of AIAD (the Association of Defense and Aerospace companies), expresses his full satisfaction: “The authorization from the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy to proceed with the sale of Piaggio Aero Industries and Piaggio Aviation to the Turkish company Baykar MakinaSanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, a leading company in the development and production of UAV systems and advanced aerospace technologies, is to be welcomed with the authorization of ministry led by Adolfo Urso, 2024 ends with positive news for the national industrial system, both from a strategic perspective and from a duty to safeguard employment levels, without prejudice to the attention due to companies in such an important sector as that of Aerospace and Defense, finally a solution arrives for an affair that has certainly lasted too long. The hope is that the arrival of capital and also new mentalities will be able to bring Piaggio back to the levels of the past, in a world that has now changed so much and is therefore in need of companies capable of responding to a market dominated by new technologies and innovation” .

The speech of the general director of Aiad, Carlo Festucci, was of the same tone: “Aiad’s great satisfaction with the conclusion of the sale of Piaggio Aerospace which guarantees the maintenance of the company’s important skills in Italy. We must thank in particular the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, who was the first to understand the potential of the company and engaged in dialogue with the Turkish government for the solution.”

“We are proud to lead Piaggio Aerospace towards the future, an icon of Italian aviation with 140 years of tradition”, writes Haluk Bayraktar, CEO of the Byakar company, on his X profile. “With one shared vision and a common commitment, we will work to preserve Piaggio’s historical identity, enhance its production capacity and encourage employment growth in Italy, combining innovation and respect for its roots”, underlined Bayraktar.