Once again Milan beats Rome for the value of public subsidiaries. The causes are to be found in the Atac which ballasts the capital's accounts. The Mediobanca report on local subsidiaries is clear: the value of the Milanese municipal companies reaches 2,45 billion compared to a value of the Roman ones that stops at 2,08 billion. The comparison between the two local transport companies is merciless and therefore it is not surprising if Fitch has assigned the ATM a BBB rating long-term and short-term F2, with a stable outlook. Fitch also withdrew its rating on Rome in March 2017 (in 2016: BBB with stable outlook) as, the American agency specified, "the city of Rome has stopped participating in the rating process" and consequently " Fitch will no longer have the information it needs to maintain the ratings." At the same time, the coverage by analysts has been cancelled.
The comparison with Milan is polluted by Atac accounts, the local transport company, which closed the balance sheet with a gigantic deficit of 765 million, despite having benefited from public transfers for around 3,7 billion (between 2011 and 2015) against the 18,7 billion disbursed to the entire LPT. On the contrary, the Milanese transport company ATM closed the accounts with a profit of 38 million.
Il comparison between Atac and ATM it is also unequal by carrying out a cost/productivity analysis: if the cost of labor in Atac is equal to 44.900 euros and the added value per employee is 40.000 euros, ATM boasts a more profitable comparison with a cost of 51,700 euros and 58.000 euros of added value . The labor cost per unit of product is in fact equal to 113% in Atac and 89% in ATM. It should be noted that, while Atm has already published the 2016 budget approved by the end of March 2017, the Atac budget has not yet seen even the shadow.
And the consideration that it covers a wider territory (1285 square km against 1082 km2 of Atm) is not enough to save the Roman municipal transport company because this should be an additional opportunity and not just a higher cost.
In the comparison edited by Mediobanca Roma, it "redeems" itself with utilities, as theACEA generated profits in the four-year period of 643 million euro, surpassed only by HERA, while A2A shows a passive result of 62 million. Furthermore, the Roman electricity and water company is in fifth place in the Italian ranking in terms of labor cost per product unit with 35,8% while in A2A it is 52,3%.
In this picture, Fitch assigned the Milanese transport company ATM the long-term “BBB” rating and the short-term “F2” rating, with a stable outlook. "The assigned rating - says the agency - reflects ATM's ability to generate self-financing, to finance the 1 billion investment plan planned for the period 2017-2021".
Furthermore, the creditworthiness also reflects the prospect of a progressive reduction in public transfers, guaranteed by flows deriving from management, and the strong link with the public reference shareholder (Municipality of Milan). ATM is thus one of the few public transport companies that boast an investment grade rating internationally.
Evidently ensuring efficient public transport is possible, but we must at least want to.
