Words are stones, wrote Carlo Levi in the diary of his travels to Sicily. But it can happen that a number becomes a boulder. Figures that if used can leave a mark, yet another, for those with wounds that do not heal. As happened to the relatives of the victims of the Morandi bridge when they read the name of the newco used by the Benettons and the Blackstone fund to launch the bid on Atlantia.The name Schemaquarantatrè immediately reminded Egle Possetti, president of the Committee to remember victims of the Morandi bridge , the number of deaths of 14 August 2018. Forty-three women, men and children who fell from the viaduct in Genoa.
“What you have read – underlined Possetti – is it perhaps a joke? In reality it is not. And in fact Schema 43 (like our deaths in the collapse of the Morandi bridge, like the number of families left on their knees) is the name of the company who will manage the shares of the Benettons acquired with the money of the Italians, on the skin of our families. Are they there or are they doing it? Or was “the operation of the 43” profitable? We are disgusted, embittered, disappointed, there is nothing more to say “.
The choice of the name of the newco, however, is not accidental. From Schemaventi to Schemaquarantadue Edizione, the Benetton family’s finance company has often used the term Schema, with progressive numbers, to define its operational financial vehicles. Schemaventi made the Sme acquisition in 1994, Schemaventiquattro in 2000 operated on Grandi Stazioni while Schemaventotto was also responsible for the Autostrade takeover bid in 2000.
Schematrentatré instead controls the financial investments in Generali and Mediobanca; Schematrentaquattro controls 50.1 percent of Autogrill. Finally, Schemaquarantadue is the holdco for the takeover bid on Atlantia, the operating vehicle that will materially carry out the takeover bid on the company.
“We can understand the rationale in managing the name of the Benetton family’s operating financial vehicles. But they should have used a minimum of attention, ethics. Instead – continues the spokesperson of the Committee – it seemed to us to be in very bad taste on this operation”. In recent days Alessandro Benetton gave an interview saying that after the tragedy of the Morandi bridge “we should have immediately apologized”, while adding “even though in reality there was only one member of the family on a board of a company in which we had 30 percent “. An exit that the relatives of the victims did not like. “They are trying to restore their virginity. A mistake, the silence after the collapse, yes of course, but there are bigger mistakes. The problem is that the passage of Aspi to the State will cost all of us citizens”. (HANDLE).
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