TOKYO -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on Monday announced an agreement to acquire the foundering naval and government shipbuilding operations of compatriot Mitsui E&S Holdings, and signaled that it is hungry for more.
The acquisition, estimated at 5 billion yen ($46 million), will give Japan's largest defense contractor a 54% share of the country's market for naval vessels. Mitsubishi Heavy will take over Mitsui E&S's Tamano Works, where Japan's latest submarine-hunting ship was launched last year, along with about 400 of the 700 workers employed there. The transaction is slated for completion in October.
