“Yesterday we had a historic agreement was signed with our unions on reorganization of our physical network through a hub and spoke model, making it more flexible and effective for the millions of customers we serve." This was announced by the CEO of Poste Italiane, Matteo Del Fante, opening the conference call with analysts following the publication of the quarterly results, closed with Net profit of 1,2 billion (+3,5%) and revenues up 5,9% to 6,8 billion in the first half of the year.
Del Fante then recalled the creation of the “financial lab”, with the aim of “simplifying the group's structure, strengthening the customer-centric approach and optimising capital”, while on artificial intelligence he explained that the group is “adopting it on a large scale to drive cross-selling and efficiency gains across the group, enhancing the technology-enabled omnichannel commercial engine and redesigning the way of working through agentic and physical AI”.
Del Fante on Tim: "The combined company's business plan will be completed by the first three months of 2027."
During the call, the CEO also referred to the operation on Tim, confirming the progress of the expected times: “We continue to decisively execute the transaction on TimThe public offering period began on July 20 and will continue until September 11.”
Del Fante also reported the green light from the target company's board of directors: "On July 18, TIM's board of directors unanimously deemed the consideration of the offer to be fair from a financial point of view, and positively assessed the industrial logic and profit prospects of the transaction." On the timing for the post-merger industrial plan, Del Fante added: "Upon completion, we expect to present the combined entity's business plan by the first quarter of 2027."
Regarding the stock market's reaction, "the market has welcomed Poste Italiane's deal with TIM with great favor," Camillo Greco, CFO of Poste, clarified during the conference call. "The performance of the stock is proof of this: since the announcement, the value of the offer increased by 21%, bringing the implicit price per share to 7,6 euros”. “The company resulting from the merger – he added – boasts a pro forma market capitalization of 46 billion of euros, with a free float of 23 billion which guarantees significant liquidity of the stock".
The offering timeline also “allows us to accelerate integration and begin seizing value creation opportunities as soon as possible,” Greco concluded.
Del Fante: Poste Vita to become part of BancoPosta by 2027
During the call with analysts, the manager explained that, as part of the ongoing reorganization, it is expected the allocation of Poste Vita to BancoPosta by 2027This is the timing of the second phase of the reorganization of Poste Italiane's business units, which will drop from four to two (Logistics and Distribution, Financial and Insurance Services). At that point Poste will be able to take advantage of the Danish Compromise, although "it will never be a bank”, Del Fante underlined.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the group's shareholders' meeting, together with the extraordinary shareholders' meeting of PostePay, approved the corporate reorganization that provides for the partial demerger of PostePay. The transaction entails the assignment of the demerged assets to Poste Italiane and its simultaneous partial allocation to BancoPosta's equity. Once the legally required deadlines have passed, the relevant deed of demerger will be formally executed.
Poste al Lavoro (Workplace Employment) at a Large Data Center in Lombardy
Speaking to analysts Del Fante also spoke about the intention to build a data center in Lombardy. The CEO explained that the first tranche of the project will reach 70 megawatts: “The land has already been identified, the energy supplier has also been identified, and there we have the support of all the major Italian financial institutions and, for that matter, even corporates that could join forces and create a large hub where we could run both training models and inference models at scale.”
The initiative is accompanied by a smaller project already started with Tim, of 20 megawatts: "We have already begun supporting TIM on a specific project launched a few months ago," Del Fante emphasized. "We will contribute on the capex side, which is not particularly significant for Poste Italiane," the manager said, noting that the real estate component of this type of initiative "is currently a very liquid market, populated and supported by all the major private equity funds globally," which are expected to absorb a significant portion of the capex.
