Finmeccanica, Italy’s defence and industrial conglomerate, responded on Monday to market concerns over its planned acquisition of DRS Technologies by insisting that it was in good financial shape and would not be forced into a rushed sale of its Ansaldo Energia subsidiary.

Alessandro Pansa, chief financial officer, told the FT that Finmeccanica did intend to go ahead with its planned rights issue of up to €1.4bn.