After months of battles and negotiations, the agreement has arrived. According to rumors reported by the Italian and Spanish press, Atlantia e Acs-Hochtief they would sign a preliminary, non-binding agreement to split up Abertis. A definitive document could soon see the light.
In the end, the line of collaboration prevailed: the Benetton holding and the Florentino Perez group will not start a tender for raises, but will share the company that manages the Spanish motorways. They will make it through a new vehicle, whose capital will be divided into very similar shares between Atlantia and Acs.
The terms of the takeover bid are still to be clarified, but it will probably be decided not to proceed with a new offer, which would require at least six months. To shorten the time, the parties could keep standing the takeover bid launched by Acs (which just yesterday he got the green light from the Spanish Consob) and settle the Italian-Spanish axis as part of that same offer. At the moment, Perez's group is offering 18,36 euros in cash or 0,1254 newly issued Hochtief shares for each Abertis share, which would thus be valued at around 18,2 billion euros.
As for governance, once the operation has gone through, the Spaniards would indicate President of the motorway company, while the Italians would have to appoint the Ceo (the name of Giovanni Castellucci, current CEO of Autostrade per l'Italia and Atlantia is already being mentioned).
Thanks to the alliance with Acs, the Benetton holding would have access to markets in which it currently does not have a significant presence such as Germany, Australia and the United States.
At the same time, with one foot in Abertis – which controls around 7.500 km of motorway between Spain, France and South America – he will be able to keep alive the project of building a world champion of toll roads. After all, this was exactly the initial objective of Atlantia.
