Confindustria takes the broom and does the spring cleaning on his accounts. And after years it has decided to adjust the value of its only industrial subsidiary in its balance sheet, The sun 24 hours. In one fell swoop the newspaper of which the association of entrepreneurs owns 61.5% was devalued by 71 million euros. In the Confindustria financial statements at the end of 2020 approved in the assembly held on 19 May last, The sun 24 hours is entered at a value of 18.4 million euros. Which is none other than the market value of the newspaper listed on Piazza Affari at the end of last December.
It is the first time that Confindustria has chosen the market path (the most reliable one) to give a price to its newspaper. Until now, even with the quotations stalled at very low prices compared to the original quotation, Confindustria persisted in calculating the value of its newspaper on the historical cost and on the share of assets falling within its competence. In fact, up to the 2019 budget, the entrepreneurial association assigned the Sun a value of 89.9 million totally unrealistic compared to the market value of the newspaper.
With the presidency Bonomi it was decided to move to market and retroactive assessments on the 2019 financial statements. Result? The Sole it went from 89.9 million euros to only 18.4 million. For years, as the value moved on the stock market, the former presidents Bowl, Squinzi e Marcegaglia they pretended to ignore that historical cost no longer equates to market prices. It was a way to not to deteriorate the equity of Confindustria which was wandering about 200 million and that now with the devaluation of the Sole, but also with that of the building in Viale dell’Astronomia, is worth just over 110 million.
After all, the collapse of the Sole both in terms of economic fundamentals and market price, it has been there for all to see for years. It was listed at the end of 2007 at a price of 5.75 euros, today it is worth only 52 cents. And while in the year of listing, pre-financial crisis, it did revenues of over half a billion now it stops under 200 million in annual turnover. In the meantime, in the tragic decade of Italian publishing, losses of over 330 million of Euro.
Still fails to make profits. In fact, the 2020 budget closed with a small loss, but still a loss of 1 million euros. In between not just a serious one sales crisis, but so too fake copies scandal to hide its collapse. With just under 20 million, today we buy the controlling share of the Sole24Ore.
However, it is difficult for anyone to step forward. For Confindustria, which in the meantime also devalued its historic building in Viale dell’Astronomia by 24 million last year, the salmon newspaper is too precious an asset for political consensus and lobbying to do without it. Consent and pressure certainly less and less incisive over time. To preserve control anyway The sun it is the only company listed in Italy that has only put special shares on the market, while ordinary shares remain locked in the drawers of Viale dell’Astronomia. A baroque governance. And what Confindustria
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