Green light of the government to the possibility for the Rai to sell its shares in the transmission tower company, with an operation that paves the way for the reorganization of the sector. The chairman of the board Mario Draghi has signed a dpcm that allows Viale Mazzini to go below the altitude of 51% of its shareholding in Rai Way, currently set at 65%. The company, listed on the stock exchange, owns the broadcasting network of the radio and television signal. Now the project of merger with Ei Towers, which holds the transmission infrastructure of Mediaset in Italy, it can be restarted. The union Usigrai he asked for clarification: “Why is the government opening up to the possibility of Rai losing control of its transmission towers? With respect to a strategic asset for the public service company, the government has a duty to explain the reasons of this choice ”, he writes in a note. “Before putting a public heritage of this magnitude must say what is the strategic project for the country system with respect to the theme of telecommunications and transmission towers. To date it seems only a way to allow the CEO of Rai to raise money with a new wave of sales. So, once again – just like in 2014 – the government causes the hole in the coffers of Rainot insuring Viale Mazzini 100% of the revenues from canonand then asks Rai to sell its repeaters for repair that hole and keep the accounts balanced. We hope we are wrong. But today this is the message “.
In fact, an attempt had already been set up seven years ago when the big snakewho then owned the majority of the company’s shares, attempted to launch aopa on Rai Way, which broke the opposition of the government Renzi, opposed to the sale of the towers, considered a strategic asset of the country. A 2014 standard, now superseded by the decreto Draghi, it prevented public TV from dropping below 51%. At this point the scenario appears destined to change. Ei Towers is 60% owned by the group F2iled by Renato Ravanelli, and 40% by MediaForEurope (Mfe), the new name of Mediaset. Under consideration there would be the creation of a new group, capable of capitalizing over two billion euros, which would control all the national infrastructures and could create management synergies and therefore a cost reduction also to the advantage of Rai, already grappling with a cutback plan to cope with lower revenues.
A plan to be defined, which could find the opposition of various political forces, as happened in 2015. At the moment, it is the party of the former premier that is raising its voice. Matteo Renzi. It is “a grave provision”, approved “without any transparency and without being told what the extra money that arrives in Rai’s pockets is for ”, he says Michele Anzaldi, deputy of Italia Viva and secretary of the Supervisory Commission, who adds: “The guarantee that the towers remained a public good, placed by Renzi in 2014, would therefore have been canceled without any reassurance as to the destination of this heritage. A bad page, I will check if there are parliamentary or other instruments to block this decision ”.
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