Thales has signed a binding agreement to acquire the Gorgé family’s 35.51% stake in French maritime robotics and navigation firm Exail Technologies, with plans to follow up with a mandatory tender offer for the remaining shares, the company announced July 6.
Safran had been in exclusive talks to acquire Exail at €128.50 per share but announced July 3 that it had ended negotiations after failing to reach mutually acceptable terms.
Exail, formed in 2022 from the combination of ECA Group and iXblue, produces underwater and surface maritime drones along with inertial navigation systems, and supplies autonomous mine-hunting systems including the French program led by Thales. The company posted 2025 revenue of €479 million, with 76% coming from navigation and maritime robotics. Thales said the acquisition will build scale in the underwater warfare market and add inertial navigation capability — Exail’s fiber-optic gyroscope technology complements Thales’ ring-laser gyroscope line — while accelerating work on anti-submarine warfare and quantum sensors. The companies project more than €90 million in operating profit impact by 2032 and up to €500 million in additional combined revenue within a decade.
Patrice Caine, Thales chairman and CEO, said the companies intend to “strengthen our high-technology industrial base and innovation for our world-class defence and civil customers, while reinforcing Europe’s technological sovereignty.” Raphaël Gorgé, Exail’s chairman and CEO, said the Gorgé family was “pleased to announce the divestment of its stake in Exail to Thales.”
The Gorgé stake sale is expected to close in the third quarter of 2027, pending antitrust and regulatory approvals, with the follow-on mandatory tender offer for all remaining shares and convertible bonds expected to close by early 2028 at the latest. Exail’s board has unanimously welcomed the transaction.
Separately, Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri announced it is spending €600 million to acquire four maritime drone and undersea engineering firms — Next Geosolutions, WSense, Graal Tech, and Defcomm — as part of a push to expand its subsea and unmanned maritime systems footprint. Fincantieri CEO Pierroberto Folgiero called the move a step toward building “an international champion in the underwater domain.” The acquisitions follow Fincantieri’s earlier purchases of subsea firm Remazel and torpedo maker WASS, and the company projects its subsea revenue will reach €1.1 billion this year, climbing to €1.8 billion by 2030.
