Fincantieri has officially put pen to paper to acquire a majority stake in historic French shipbuilder STX France.

The Italian company is paying EUR 79.5m ($88.6m) for 66.66% of the STX France share capital from its current shareholder STX Europe.

“The perfect complementarity of Fincantieri and STX France cruise activities and products will allow the two companies to serve all the clients and end-markets and to generate value not only for shareholders, but also for the employees and the respective subcontractors’ networks,” Fincantieri said.