ROMA. If we were in a ring, it could be argued that since yesterday the boxer Benetton has wavered and the government can deliver the final blow. The ruling of the Constitutional Court on the exclusion of Autostrade from the reconstruction of the Genoa bridge gives the State the margin to obtain what it had not previously obtained. If the solution passed through the numbers, the distance between the parts would be bridgeable. Yesterday the chief of staff of the three buildings involved (Palazzo Chigi, Tesoro and Infrastrutture) dealt for a long time with the managing directors of Atlantia (parent of Autostrade) and of Autostrade itself. The government asks for an immediate reduction of tariffs up to 10%, Autostrade started from 5% but is willing to negotiate. The government is demanding 3, 4 billion in compensation, Autostrade until yesterday had stopped at 3 but is willing to negotiate. The government proposes an amendment to the rule that regulates the possible revocation of the concession, Autostrade is willing to discuss it. And then there is the most delicate issue: the loss of control of Autostrade by the Benetton family. Today Atlantia has 88% of it: the Five Stars ask to drop below 50%. Here too the Benetton family is willing to negotiate. The government says it has given time until Monday, when there should be a new meeting. If it were not yet another, we could call it an ultimatum.
The government is in the magical moment. The new bridge will be inaugurated within a month, the Benettons and the other members of the group are weakened. After the modification with the latest Milleproroghe decree of the value of the concession (from 23 to 7 billion), the rating of Autostrade’s bonds is junk (garbage): if it has not yet failed, it is due to a loan from the parent company. The problem is not the shareholders of Autostrade, but those of the government. The majority arrives at the cutting of the torn ribbon: Pd against Five Stars and vice versa, Prime Minister Conte against his ministers and vice versa. Not only that: among the same Five Stars there are those – see Alessandro Di Battista – blowing on the fire of the request for revocation of the concession. The administrative officials are just around the corner (in September, also in Liguria) and there is no better argument for recovering the lost consensus. Conte has so far taken time, the only weapon available to him.
A source tells that in recent days the Minister of Transport Paola De Micheli has gone as far as to hypothesize with the top of the company the total exit of Atlantia from Autostrade. A request that ended in nothing, but which explains the climate. For the hard and pure of the Five Stars the solution passes only from there. Between zero and 88% there is actually the compromise that would put an end to the exhausting negotiation. The solution is being discussed by the consultants of the two sides, and is similar to the one that avoided the failure of Salini-Impregilo. Cassa Depositi e Prestiti is willing to participate in a dedicated capital increase that would bring the Benettons (or better, Atlantia, in which there are several international investors) down below 50% of Autostrade. At that point the Cinque Stelle avThe decisive political argument would be available: the motorways are back in the hands of the state. Or rather, in those of the postal savers who had already helped to save the construction company that put the Genoa bridge back on its feet from bankruptcy. “It’s a question of prices,” says a source engaged in the negotiation. The price of the Benettons’ shares, the political price of the Five Stars.
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