STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-Ansaldo up as reshuffle seen hastening sale

Shares in Ansaldo STS (Milan: STS.MI - news) rise 2.4 percent, topping Milan's blue-chip FTSE MIB index, as a management reshuffle at the Italian rail technology company is seen as hastening a planned stake sale by parent company Finmeccanica (Other OTC: FINMF - news) .

Trading volume on Ansaldo's stock is 60 percent higher than its average for the past three months, compared to less than a third of the average for the FTSE MIB.

The Italian defence group said after the market close on Wednesday that the current chief executive of Ansaldo STS, Sergio De Luca, would become Finmeccanica's chief operating officer.

"The turnover at the helm of STS can be seen as a signal that the sale of Finmeccanica's 40 percent STS stake to another industrial player or to a state-controlled entity is becoming closer and closer," broker Banca Akros says in a note.

Finmeccanica, in which the Italian state owns a 30 percent stake, put its rail and other non-core assets up for sale nearly two years ago to cut debts and focus on aerospace and defence.

Reuters messaging rm://giancarlo.navach.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net