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Stop everyone: we no longer have a highway. The same thing happened in July, when the 5 stars celebrated the “expulsion” of the Benettons from Autostrade with the cry of “giving back to the Italians what was always theirs”. But apart from the propaganda of Grillina, which did not consider that nationalization is one thing and another is to give the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti the role of majority shareholder, the celebrations could still take place with the flag of the Highways in the hands of the State. Three months later, the offer sent by Cassa to Atlantia (the Benetton subsidiary that has put its controlling stake in Autostrade up for sale) says no, we won’t have a highway. We will have a piece of the road, while the majority will be Americans, Australians, Chinese, Germans and French.
What is about to be the result of an endless and nervous game, with endless letters, agreements, ultimatums, doubts and changes in strategy on the Government-Benetton axis, is not the subject of tricolor cheers. But the management of a strategic asset for the country, something like 3,020 kilometers of motorway network, one of the largest in Europe. Something worth around 10 billion. And, at a level that goes beyond the economic-financial, a network through which five million travelers pass every day to move around the country. Autostrade is Italy, as remembered with the creation of the Autostrade concessioni e Costruzioni Spa company in 1950. It was created by IRI to participate in the post-war reconstruction of Italy together with other industrial groups.
Autostrade is Italy and also the Benettons, who entered the control room in 1999, when the privatization season opened. And now, as we said, it will be mostly in the hands of foreigners. Better: to foreign funds. Funds, whose existential objective is the maximization of profits, capable of moving from one deal to another or of being present at several tables at the same time and at the same time migrating to others when the deal is no longer convenient. In two words: they are aggressive investors, where aggressive is not a negative characterization in itself, but only the DNA explanation of a way of doing business. It’s not that groups, traditional companies, people other than funds don’t care about money and dividends, it’s that funds are more volatile, less often long-term partners.
The game plan for the purchase of 88% of Autostrade sees Cassa flanked by the US fund Blackstone and the Australian fund Macquarie. The vehicle that will allow the three buyers to buy 88% will see CDP lead the patrol with a stake presumably set at 40%, with the remaining 60% held by Blackstone and Macquarie. It is true that each of the two funds will have 30%, it is also true that Cassa will be the first shareholder (the president and CEO will express it), but it is equally true that the CDP itself will not have the majority. And among other things, the Foundations, which of Cassa are shareholders and shareholders who matter, have certainly given the green light to the gambling scheme, but they have made it very clear that the commitment must be limited. In short, in the end that 40% could be even lower. And then there are other funds. Because 88% of Autostrade is for sale, while 12% is in the hands of the Germans from Allianz, the French from EDF and the Chinese from Silk Road. When everyone joins in, Cdp’s stake will be further diluted. A rescue, in an Italian key, could come from an investor (in the CDP offer it is noted that “the entry of other institutional investors, especially Italians, is allowed”), but in any case things would not change so much. And it will certainly not increase the Cdp quota, which is the ram that the Government wants to enter Autostrade.
The scheme concluded by the government in mid-July foresaw the entrance of the Bank, with a 33% stake, flanked by welcome and “institutional” investors. Together they would have had 55% and then the roads, to use the 5-star motto, would have been ours. Or at least that is how it could be said, without clinging to the details that are totems when it comes to economics and financial assets. Now, however, we are moving towards a new Autostrade, with the majority in the hands of foreign funds. And the Benettons must be paid too. Because the famous scheme was skipped and we went on sale. So a price, then a collection for the seller. Sell Atlantia, the Benettons own 30% of Atlantia. Atlantia collects, the product is distributed to shareholders. Paying “the culprits” of the Morandi Bridge collapse, always using the 5-star mantra, for an Autostrade that won’t even belong to the Italians.
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