According to the information on the Benetton Government agreement, at the end of the long process that is about to start, the ASPI motorway network, under the banner of its invoked Italian spirit, will be governed by the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti with a share of the share capital of no less than 30,01% in order not to run the risk of a hostile takeover bid. The hypothetical climber should in fact launch a takeover bid on the entire share capital, with a very significant financial outlay. Unless the model tested in 1999 by Massimo D'Alema (then Prime Minister) and the famous brave captains led by Colaninno who took over Telecom only with debt provided by the banks, which then poured into the balance sheet of Telecom itself, which could not withstand such debt for a long time. It was an involvement of the so-called strong powers that today enjoy the permanent hostility of the grillini, of a part of the PD (see the recent statements by Bettini, a strong man of the Roman PD), and also by political assonance by President Conte.
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Today the proposed model is that of the public company resurrected since the XNUMXs when discussions began on governance models for public enterprises that governments intended to privatize. Today, in the case of Autostrade, to achieve such a goal seems to understand that will be the progressive dilution of the quota of the share capital owned by Benetton. But to reach the public company we must ask ourselves from today who will be the subscribers of the share capital , with the exclusion of the share held by CDP. It is rumored that Italian savers will subscribe to these shares, thus being able to argue that Autostrade has been returned to the Italian population, albeit limited to that part of the population that has sufficient savings to diversify its securities portfolio and financial wealth. Obviously the everything will depend on what returns on the financial market will be offered to potential subscribers. A very difficult objective to achieve if it is stated that the new listed company will also have the mission of keeping tariffs low, of not borrowing beyond certain limits for investment financing, leaving tariff revenues to finance the ordinary maintenance of the motorways.
But don't forget that the public company model also suggests participation in the share capital of investment funds, in order to promote the stability of the shareholding structure (strong powers in the Italian vernacular), which usually participate in the Board of Directors with the so-called independent directors who potentially should also protect minority shareholders. And if the powers that be will not lend themselves to the subscription of the shares deriving from the dilution, lPublic underwriting of the shares will depend only on the combination of risk and return of listed securities. Otherwise the state will once again play the unsatisfactory role it had before the privatizations. And so it will be the community as a whole that will support the highways with taxes. As in the case of Alitalia. The motorway company will be joined by the airline with the Italian flag.
