France nationalizes sole shipyard capable of building aircraft carriers

The French government has the country’s largest shipyard at Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic coast to prevent Italian company Fincantieri from obtaining a majority stake.

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By Jean-Michel Roche ([1]) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The shipyard was previously owned by STX France and was the only one in the country big enough for the construction of aircraft carriers.

The stake was put up for sale by South Korean company STX went bankrupt last year.