The tug of war between the Benettons, Atlantia's key shareholders (+0,75% on the Stock Exchange), and the Italian government has landed in the European Union. The Financial Times reveals this morning that the holding company that owns the entire share capital of Autostrade per l'Italia, has accused the Italian Government of having violated Community law invoking the intervention of Brussels to thwart, says the indictment, the attempt to force the company to sell off the majority stake in Aspi at a reduced value with significant damage not only for Edizione, the leader of the Treviso group but for all the shareholders of Atlantia, including some large international investors, including the Singapore sovereign wealth fund. The challenge thus takes on a significant international value: Brussels risks finding itself grappling with a very delicate precedent on the eve of a season in which the European Union wants to compete with the US to attract capital funds.
But, on the other hand, the hard line seems to prevail in the Italian government, no compromise or discounts of various kinds with respect to the Milleproroghe letter which would allow the Government to "drastically reduce" the compensation due to the company in the event of termination of the contract and to modify the tariff mechanism. A road that, easy to predict, leads straight to the courts with only one certainty: biblical times to get a verdict. Unless, under the pressure of the unsustainable costs of an increase in the rates imposed by the debt downgrade, Atlantia does not give in to the pressures to sell its share to CDP and other welcome partners such as the F2i fund. It is the suspicion of the top management of the Benetton group that does not exclude, in principle, a sale. But the takeover bid, a step required by law, cannot fail to take into account the effective value of the stake: 14-15 billion pre-Ponte Morandi, no more than 10-11 in the light of the Milleproroghe.
But there is no need to anticipate the next episodes of a game which, at this point, goes beyond the billionaire contest. In Atlantia's letter to the Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis, the company is officially asking Brussels to take the lead with the Italian authorities to address the violation of EU law. At the same time, however, the search for a negotiated solution remains open, useful indeed necessary to prevent the collapse of the motorways, of which the first examples were seen with the Sunday kilometric queues in Liguria. There has been talk of a 5% rate cut until the end of the concession or, as the company is asking, for the next five years. But times are short. At the end of the month, the deadline for appealing against the Milleproroghe expires, a necessary act, they say in Aspi, to avoid objections from Italian and non-Italian shareholders.
