MILAN, Italy (AP) -- The Italian government plans to buy about $335.1 million in new Finmeccanica stock as part of a plan by Italy's aerospace and defense company to raise capital, the company said in a statement Monday.
The move comes amid concerns that the steep market declines in recent weeks have exposed Italian companies to hostile takeovers. The Treasury Ministry and the stock market regulator are currently drafting rules to give Italian companies mechanisms to defend themselves from unwanted advances.
The government will hold a 30.2 percent share in Finmeccanica when the 250 million euro transaction is completed.
Finmeccanica announced last week it planned to offer new shares to existing shareholders at 8 euros ($10.72) a share.
Shares of Finmeccanica rose 2.43 percent to 11.69 euros ($15.67) in midday trading Monday in Milan. Italy's benchmark S&P/MIB index was trading up for a second day, rising 1.9 percent to 22,058.
Finmeccanica also announced a strategic partnership between its subsidiary Alenia Aeronautica and Mubadala Development Co., an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, to manufacture aircraft components for civil aircraft.
The deal did not include any sale of a stake in the Italian aerospace firm.
Mubadala earlier this year announced plans to build a plant by 2010 that will manufacture components as well as primary structures, such as outboard flaps, horizontal and vertical stabilizers. Alenia makes the carbon-fiber fuselage sections for Boeing's planned 787 airliner.