Finmeccanica says court revokes guarantee freeze in India chopper row

MILAN (Reuters) - Finmeccanica said on Friday an Italian court had revoked a freeze on up to 228 million euros ($311 million) of bank guarantees that India was seeking to recover in a dispute with the Italian defence group over a scrapped helicopter deal.

Back in March an Italian judge had rejected India's request to recover more than 278 million euros in bank guarantees backing the contract.

Finmeccanica said it would protect its interests also in view of recovering the guarantees in an arbitration process that has already started. It said its 2014 targets do not include any negative effect from the Indian helicopter contract.

 

India cancelled the 560 million-euro order with Finmeccanica unit AgustaWestland for 12 top-end helicopters in January, citing a breach of integrity relating to alleged corruption.

($1 = 0.7336 Euros)

(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, editing by Steve Scherer)