It's official: around Tigf, the company that manages 5 km of gas network and two storage sites in southwestern France, Italian will also be spoken. The consortium formed by Snam (45 per cent), the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore (35 per cent) and Electricité de France (20 per cent) has finalized the acquisition of the subsidiary Transport et Infrastructure Gaz France with Total SA And on the Stock Exchange, the manager of the peninsula's gas network sees its share up by more than one percentage point.
Six months have passed since – it was February – the French oil group had chosen to negotiate the sale of its gas subsidiary exclusively with the consortium, which had put 2,4 billion euros on the plate, finding the squaring of the circle in a gap that ranged from 2 to 3 billion and beating the competition from transalpine investors (Axa, Crédit Agricole and Predica) from the Belgians of Fluxys and Adia, the sovereign fund of Abu Dhabi. As reported by the economic-financial newspaper Les Echos – the equivalent of our Sole 24 Ore – Total was expecting 2 and a half billion.
The crossing of the Alps by Snam and partners then passed through Paris, with the go-ahead from the Ministry of Defense and Energy, and through Brussels, with the go-ahead from the European Commissioner for Competition.
Meanwhile, the eyes of the French media are all focused on the Italian operator of the gas network (32.000 kilometers of gas pipelines), which thus manages to conquer the energy market beyond the Alps. A feat that Enel failed to achieve in 2006 with Suez-Electrabel. Already at the end of 2012, Le Monde, the main French newspaper, defined Snam as "an Italian model of opportunism".
The Italian company – Les Echos is keen to clarify – has assured that it will maintain the autonomy of Tigf and will not remove the management team, supporting the development plan already proposed, which provides for 500 million euros of investments.
