“As I've said in the past, Fabio and I are on loan here. Sooner or later we will return to our activities. Maybe in a few days, a few weeks or a few months." Claudio Costamagna thus concludes, with a touch of philosophy, the press meeting dedicated to 2017 financial results of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, even more, to the progress of the three-year plan which, as Costamagna himself and the CEO Fabio Gallia underline several times, is halfway through "perfectly in line with the ambitions of the 2021 plan". In short, the new tenants of Palazzo Chigi and the Ministry of the Economy will want to change helmsman, they will not find any unpleasant surprises. Even though many of the games the Cashier is involved in are still open. Including that of Fincantieri, yesterday at the center of sales on the stock exchange.
“But the value of the stock – objected Gallia – has grown five times since the listing started. And the company is at the center of a major project of European interest together with French friends who, as we know, are not easy interlocutors”. After the antitrust authorizations, the Italian-French flagship will be able to take off even if the governance has not yet been defined (perhaps modeled on the successful experience of Stm). And Saipem? “It would be crazy if I were satisfied with the economic balance of the operation – admits Costamagna – which was conditioned by the bad economic situation in the sector. But today things are looking better. It was our duty to defend one of the country's strategic enterprises, the one that employs the most engineers. And it should not be forgotten that the intervention in Saipem was justified by the objective of deconsolidating the group from ENI. Had we not done so, Eni would not have been able to guarantee the current dividend which has allowed us to collect 600 million, more than the cost of the Saipem operation”.
Costamagna also claims credit for the intervention in Ilva. “Thanks to us and to the groups that participated in the consortium, we have favored the positive outcome of the operation. Now, if requested we could still do our part”. Same approach for Alitalia. “A contribution from us is not excluded, as exclusively financial partners, in the presence of an industrial plan to our liking by whoever wins the company”. Or for the developments of Open Fiber, waiting for the picture of Telecom Italia to be clarified. "We'll see what happens - comments Gallia - We are only concerned that Italy equips itself with a fundamental asset for the country". Many other things boil in the pot of the Cassa. Even if times often don't match schedules. In terms of divestments (see Sia, for example). "But to dance tango - comments the president - it takes two". In other words, it is not easy to convince private partners to take the stock market leap.
The fact remains that, beyond the direct economic results, the CDP has confirmed itself as one of the levers (unfortunately few) in support of the growth of the Bel Paese. As demonstrated by the assessment carried out by Prometeia: the CDP contributed 40 billion to GDP (equal to 2,3%) after having made investments of 58 billion (9,2% of the national total), helping to support the demand for goods Italians abroad (6,8% of capital goods exports). In short, a precious engine, as demonstrated by the 490 employees (2% of the Italian total) who work in various companies present in the CDP galaxy, a group that in 2017 made 162 billion available to the system, among the resources generated by the group (90 billion) and those guaranteed by the leverage effect (another 70 billion). This effort was undoubtedly made possible by the year of remuneration on funding decided at the time by Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, which was inevitable, according to Gallia, after the collapse in interest rates which had damaged the Cassa, given the structure of the collection (passive in concentrated in the long term, active in the short term) of the institute.
