Finmeccanica: Flying higher

Finmeccanica, the Italian defence company, is starting to look, well, defensive. It will probably pocket most of the nearly E1bn the Italian government has said it intends to offer as loans for defence R&D next year. The company also recently secured an important UK contract. Boss Pier Francesco Guarguaglini’s stated confidence in 2009 seems increasingly justified. The shares have halved in value this year, in line with the Italian market. That performance includes a 10% gain in December, inspi...