Four managers working to save the Vittoria Shipyard

ADRIA – An anchor of rescue for the Vittoria Naval Shipyard. Manager internal and external to the company are ready to present a industrial plan. At the head of the consortium is Michele Lauriero, director of Vittoria’s project management office, 50 years old, graduated in naval engineering, who is assisting the CEO Stefano Lupi in the management of the company, and has acquired twenty-five years of experience, first with the role as a Naval Engineering Officer of the Navy and then as a manager in the shipbuilding industry, working for important international groups. «Despite the involvement of politicians, nothing concrete has emerged in recent weeks – says Lauriero – and the deadline of 31 July, the date on which the company plans to complete the last orders, is approaching. At that moment, if there is no concrete proposal, the shipyard will be forced to start the judicial liquidation process.”

THE PERSPECTIVE
In this context, a small team of managers and executives developed a plan. “We want to propose an alternative to liquidation and avoid disastrous employment and economic consequences.” The proposal consists of a Management Buy-Out (MBO) operation, the acquisition of Vittoria by a team of managers who, by making available their skills, knowledge, credibility and part of the capital, would acquire the shipyard making the transition smooth from the old management to a totally new one but which, knowing the internal operational dynamics, and being equipped with all the necessary skills and knowledge, would allow a resumption of the activity without traumas and discontinuities, preserving all the jobs.

FOUR PROTAGONISTS
The Mno Team is made up of 4 professionals, two internal and two external. Lauriero will be supported by 3 other professionals. «The operation aims to take advantage of the vast commercial opportunities emerging in both the military and commercial sectors, inheriting the good reputation built over 100 years of history. Roles will be assigned on the basis of skills, ability and meritocracy and no longer with a simple logic of dynastic division between members of the owning family. There will be effective economic-financial management control, application of the most modern and efficient production processes to preserve all current jobs.”
On this basis, in discontinuity with the management of the recent past, Team Mbo has developed a business plan that outlines the basis of a rescue plan model. The investigation phase among institutional investors was also recently started. The idea would be to be able to access, if possible through a pool of banks or financial institutions, preferably operating in the area, a critical mass of finance in the form of a loan to be repaid through the profits of the first years of operation. However, the path or the opportunity to involve private investors is not precluded. «That the Vittoria Shipyard could fail and close inexorably is unimaginable – concludes Lauriero – and if it were to happen it would not only put the local economic system in crisis but would have repercussions on the entire Italian shipbuilding industry».

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