Fincantieri expands underwater business with four acquisitions

MarineTraffic / Marcel Coster Fincantieri has acquired Next Geosolutions, WSense, Graal Tech, and Defcomm. The four transactions enhance the company’s position in a segment that is becoming increasingly central to security, energy, and the development of critical infrastructure. Next Geosolutions is among the leading international players in marine survey and geoscience services, as well as in offshore construction support services. WSense, Graal Tech, and Defcomm are Italian high-tech scale-ups specialising, respectively, in underwater communications, the Internet of Underwater Things, and autonomous underwater and surface vehicles. The four companies will be integrated into Fincantieri’s underwater technological hub. The hub will evolve into an international underwater operator, comprising eight companies, fully vertically integrated. The companies within the hub will work synergistically, benefiting from substantial cross-fertilisation across their products, services and technologies. For instance, NextGeo’s activities will be fully integrated with Vard-built work vessels equipped with Remazel’s launch-and-recovery systems to deploy and retrieve Graal Tech’s drones, which carry out seabed surveys and are connected via underwater communication systems developed by WSense. The underwater segment generated €667m in revenues in 2025, accounting for 6.7% of the company’s total revenues, and is expected to grow at a significant pace. On a 2026 pro forma basis, revenues are expected to exceed €1.1bn, and EBITDA is expected to reach approximately €220m, also supported by the acquisitions, achieving the underwater revenue and EBITDA targets set for 2030 in the 2026 –2030 business plan four years ahead of schedule. The acquisitions are expected to contribute to the group’s 2026 pro forma net profit of more than €60m. A distinctive feature of this transaction is its marked dual-use nature. The integrated technologies and capabilities enable a synergistic response to the needs of both defence and commercial markets. “The acquisitions announced today mark a historic transformation for Fincantieri that creates an international champion in the underwater domain, enabled by full integration across the value chain of technologies, capabilities and operational expertise,” said Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO and managing director of Fincantieri. Bojan Lepic Bojan is an English language professor turned journalist with years of experience covering the energy industry with a focus on the oil, gas, and LNG industries as well as reporting on the rise of the energy transition. Previously, he had written for Navingo media group titles including Offshore Energy Today and LNG World News. Before joining Splash, Bojan worked as an editor for Rigzone online magazine. Read Next July 7, 2026 EU antitrust law and the China trade question July 7, 2026 Equinor buys BP out of $10bn Bay du Nord project July 6, 2026 d’Amico fixes MR2 for two years July 6, 2026 Performance Shipping locks in $39m Aramco deal July 6, 2026 New Zealand opens door to offshore wind investment