Home » News » Atlantia under 50% in Autostrade, the proposal to the government: final round

Atlantia under 50% in Autostrade, the proposal to the government: final round

A billion difference, in a fork that oscillates between 3 and 4 billion. Between the conditions requested by the government and Autostrade’s proposal in early June, deemed inadmissible by the executive, there is an important gap which, however, could be bridged. Even with a capital increase that would dilute the share of Atlantia, now 88% of Aspi, up to 49%. Dilution – for which there is the mandate of the board to the managing director Carlo Bertazzo – through an increase signed by Cassa Depositi and other investors that would provide a company with bankability problems with additional resources, avoiding the embarrassment of having to pay a check to the holding controlled by the Benettons. Spectator interested remains the F2i fund which would have already constituted an ad hoc vehicle. The crux lies in the evaluation of Autostrade. Far from 13.5 billion in 2017, the year in which Atlantia sold 12% for 1.5 billion to the Germans of Allianz and to a Chinese fund.


The Council of Ministers

After all, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said yesterday that without “an extremely advantageous proposal” for the public interest – harmed in recent years for the benefit of the private interest (the copyright is of the Court of Auditors, in a report of 2019) – “The government will decide to revoke the concession” Tuesday in the Council of Ministers set on the agenda. Palazzo Chigi has moved the summit one day. Someone reads to us the desire to find an agreement because “too much time has passed”, says the deputy secretary of the Democratic Party Andrea Orlando, inviting the government to decide, to avoid finding itself with the failure of Autostrade, the takeover of Anas in the management and the headache of having to cancel part of the investments: “The Democratic Party is concerned that those who have harmed no longer harm.”


The package

The “quadra” could be found in the middle, in a 3.4-3.5 billion package that provides for Autostrade to adopt the new tariff model of the Transport Authority which establishes a system of sanctions (and of related reductions in toll rates) in the event of non-investments on the network. The three heads of Cabinet present at the table on Thursday – Alberto Stancanelli al Mit, Luigi Carbone al Mef and Roberto Chieppa, general secretary of Palazzo Chigi, very faithful to Conte – would have asked the top managers of Autostrade to imagine a curve of the tariff trend that can give the idea of ​​a strong discount to protect “the public interest”, as Paola De Micheli, the Minister of Transport, claims. A 5% loss per year for the first five years, then slightly reduced over the horizon of the 18 years left as compensation for lower cash flows. In the package that the top managers of Autostrade will present today with a letter to the government there would be at least 700 million additional maintenance compared to those scheduled in 2018. The government would like this figure to rise to a billion given the problems on the Ligurian node. In addition to at least 800 million for Genoa as compensation for the collapse of the Morandi viaduct to be added to the reconstruction costs already incurred and paid to Commissioner Bucci. The need for a capital strengthening of Autostrade remains, with the hypothesis of a capital increase and dilution of Atlantia. The government calls as an alternative condition to revoking the change of control of Autostrade, as the Deputy Minister for Development, Stefano Buffagni (M5S) points out: “The Benettons are out otherwise ready to leave the government”.

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