Motorways, who benefits from the Gavio and Dogliani entrance?
Is there really a need to bring two private dealers like Gavio and Dogliani into Autostrade per l'Italia, controlled by Cdp? Wasn't the Benettons' experience at the helm of Autostrade enough? Francis Walsingham's letter
Dear director,
but do we really want to hand over Autostrade per l'Italia to the Gavio and Dogliani?
I ask you this question because I recently read articles on the plans – underway, it would seem, especially in some party offices – to involve the Gavio (with Astm) and Dogliani (with Fininc) families in the capital of Autostrade per l'Italia. The company is currently controlled by Holding Reti Autostradali, which has an 88 percent share and which in turn refers to Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (51 percent); the Blackstone Infrastructure Partners and Macquarie Asset Management funds each own 24.5 percent.
Putting my question aside for a moment, I would like to return for a moment to an article – very precise, as usual – by Giuseppe Liturri for Startmag where he talked about how Report had revealed a letter from Dario Scannapieco, CEO of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti , to the minority shareholders of Autostrade per l'Italia. In that letter Scannapieco explained to the shareholders the need to intervene on the company's statute to modify the rule which provides for the distribution, every year, of the entirety of the profits in the form of dividends. Autostrade – explained Scannapieco – needs to spend to meet the objectives on investments and infrastructure maintenance, and therefore can no longer afford to distribute all the available cash to shareholders. Who, however, and legitimately, invested in Autostrade precisely because they were attracted by the profits.
Scannapieco's request, as Mf reconstructed, "was immediately returned to the sender by Blackstone and Macquarie […]. The fund's job is to collect as many dividends as possible to quickly repay the investment and generate returns." But in the end an agreement was reached, which was positive for all Aspi shareholders: no changes to the statute of Autostrade per l'Italia, but the possibility of annually reviewing the dividend policy so as not to distribute, possibly, the entirety of the useful.
Scannapieco did not win across the board, therefore. But the offensive by the CEO of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti seems to have been conceived from the outset as preparatory to an agreement, i.e. the sum then distributed to shareholders in 2023 (75 percent, rather than 100). For 2024, we'll see: but in the meantime Autostrade has secured the resources necessary for investments and maintenance, and the funds have not been too dissatisfied.
In recent months, in the wake of numerous journalistic pieces on the topic, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini has issued several statements in favor of a further entry of private individuals into the capital of Autostrade per l'Italia. Last October Bloomberg revealed the plans of Fininc , founded by Matterino Dogliani, to acquire a controlling stake in Autostrade: an 8 billion euro offer which, including debt, would become a 20 billion deal. The news agency stressed that the plan had Salvini's blessing, without the knowledge of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Bloomberg concluded the article thus: “in a potential transaction with Fininc, Cdp could maintain a minority stake in Autostrade to guarantee the government future supervision of the company”.
Having reconstructed the context – the topic is complicated – I reformulate my initial question. Considering the balance found between the current members, public and private; considering that Cassa Depositi e Prestiti controls approximately 50 percent of Autostrade; and considering the presence of foreign funds that have no conflicts of interest (they do not hold motorway concessions), I ask myself: what need is there to further dilute Cassa's share (and therefore public control) on Autostrade by bringing in new private entities? Only to satisfy ambitions and relationships of environments of the League of Veneto and Piedmont?
I leave the conclusions to you, dear director, and to you readers.
But first, I recommend that readers read or reread this article to understand how excellent some motorway managers are… And this other one to get an idea of some, real, goals of other managers who aim for Aspi…
Best regards,
Francis Walsingham
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/autostrade-ingresso-privati-cdp/ on Thu, 08 Feb 2024 06:51:35 +0000.