Almost three years after the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, in Genoa, the Italian motorways return to the state. Atlantia’s shareholders approved the sale of 88.06% of Autostrade per l’Italia to the consortium led by CDP, in which foreign funds such as Blackstone and Macquarie also participate. The ok came from about 87% of the shareholders who took part (in Covid mode) in the vote, confirming the proposal of the Atlantia board by a large majority. This is the favorable vote of 1,129 shareholders equal to 86.86% of the share capital. 60 shareholders equal to 12.75% of the capital represented voted against and 12 shareholders equal to 0.39% of the capital abstained, according to a note from the infrastructure holding. The activist fund TCI, which holds 10% of the capital, also voted in favor despite public statements. Of the large institutional shareholders only Lazard voted against.
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The title in Piazza Affari Atlantia also benefits after the green light of the assembly: the stock of the parent company Atlantia – which already in the morning was moving upwards by around three percentage points – after the formalization of the shareholders’ s, registered a good current of purchases, rising over 4% to a maximum per session of 16.3 euros, before returning to an increase of 3% to 16.1 euros per share.
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On the other hand, the recommendations of the great financial advisors they had been unanimous: Frontis, Iss and Glass Lewis had suggested to the institutional funds in the capital of Atlantia to sell the stake in Autostrade. The valuation of 9.1 billion for 100% of the manager, which means 8 billion for the shareholders of the infrastructure holding, evidently seemed the best possible considering the absence of alternative hypotheses. The Spanish construction group Acs, an offshoot of Florentino Perez and a partner of Atlantia in the Spanish motorway manager Abertis, also moved to express interest, without ever making any kind of offer.
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The manager’s capital is then reorganized three years after the collapse of the Morandi viaduct in Genoa – a tragedy in which 43 people lost their lives – which formally opened the procedure for revoking the concession without ever decreeing it. The consortium’s valuation also reached 9.3 billion, considering that the buyers paid the sellers an additional 2% commission on cash flows from 1 January 2021 until the closing date, expected by March 2022. The disposal of Autostrade will be formalized by Atlantia on the board of directors convened for 10 June.
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For Edizione, the Benetton holding divided into four shares equal to representing as many branches of the Ponzano Veneto family, it means a valuation of approximately 2.4 billion euros, 600 million per family branch. But this is money that will remain in Atlantia’s belly for future investments. Atlantia’s debt is currently 4.5 billion. Management may decide to reset it or not but has long-term loans with very low interest rates. Another 4 billion remain usable, plus 1 billion of liquidity. Some possible investment fronts: tourist airports such as those of Fiumicino and Nice, where Atlantia is already a shareholder, digital payment services in Europe via Telepass, motorway shareholdings through the Spanish operator Abertis, integrated mobility such as vertiport, vertical take-off aircraft for the last mile of passengers and freight.
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