“Berlusconi's Trojan horse hourglass in La7? But let's not joke: we left Fininvest ten years ago and since ours is a private equity fund, we are only interested in making profits, without any political conditioning on the part of anyone”. Alessandro Grimaldi, senior partner and delegated advisor of Clessidra, the largest Italian private equity fund and the only one to have presented an offer to Telecom Italia to buy all of TI Media, is outspoken: its compass is only the creation of value and money. Without political bias. Counter-proof: “Mentana, Santoro and Lerner? If we conquer La7 and if the three of them make profits we keep them close, if they produce losses we are not interested”. Here is the interview given by Grimaldi to FIRSTonline.
FIRSTonline – Dr. Grimaldi, there is a rumor on the market that, despite the deadline being mid-November, Clessidra is increasingly oriented towards presenting a binding offer for the purchase of all TI Media, both of the two TV channels (La7 and Mtv) and of the multiplex: how are things really?
GRIMALDI – We have been carrying out the due diligence of TI Media for two weeks and, if we find the necessary funding to support the debt portion of the purchase, we will certainly present a binding offer, which at present could be the only global one and not piecemeal advanced to Telecom Italia and which will be half in equity and half in debt.
FIRSTonline – Who are you negotiating the financing with?
GRIMALDI – With the banks and mainly with Intesasanpaolo and Unicredit.
FIRSTonline – From the outset, Telecom TVs, crushed by the Rai-Mediaset duopoly, have never managed to close a positive balance sheet and have accumulated losses and debts: with what magic wand does Clessidra now think of reversing the course and extracting value from TI Average?
GRIMALDI – We don't presume to possess any magic wand but we are absolutely convinced that, if Italy were a normal country, a quality television like La7 would already break even, provided it continues to make good programs capable of attracting audiences and advertising.
FIRSTonline – What are the anomalies that penalize La7 and what makes you think they can be overcome?
GRIMALDI – We are a country where there is a television group like Mediaset which collects more advertising than audience and we are a country where the state television has the right to collect both advertising and license fees. Fortunately there are two innovations, one already in place and the other in progress, which give hope that the situation will change for the better. The first is that, since Berlusconi is no longer in government, Mediaset will no longer be the master in the field of advertising with revenue percentages above the international average. And the second novelty is that Europe is pushing for Italy to correct its anomalies in the television field. But for TI Media there is another anomalous aspect to consider.
FIRSTonline – What would that be?
GRIMALDI – The advertising contract previously torn up by Cairo which, as shown by the documentation made available for the tender, has been challenged by Telecom Italia Media which considers it penalizing and is the subject of legal dispute. However, we have reason to believe that, before the conclusion of the tender, the dispute will be resolved with a more balanced contract.
FIRSTonline – What role does Marco Bassetti, former producer of Endemol, play in the operation you are planning and what will he have, afterwards, in case of your victory?
GRIMALDI – To date, Bassetti, by virtue of his recognized expertise, is our technical consultant for television programs and contents.
FIRSTonline – On paper, Clessidra's offer for TI Media is the only global one and, oscillating between 330 and 380 million euros, it seems the highest from an economic point of view, even if it remains below the market capitalization of the society, but your race has a political handicap due to your former proximity to Berlusconi's Fininvest: how do you plan to overcome it?
GRIMALDI – There are at least three elements that do justice to every absurd suspicion and every hostile prejudice spread by competitors against us. The first is that Claudio Sposito and I left Fininvest not yesterday but for at least 10 years: does that seem too little to you? The second point is that Fininvest has never been part of our group of investors nor of our shareholders and that Clessidra has never done business with them. The third decisive point is that Clessidra's philosophy is only to make profits in the interests of its investors and to enter companies to make them grow and extract value: it would be absurd for us to preclude ourselves from these objectives by accepting political constraints or industrial-type conditioning our reach which could only hinder our activity as independent operators.
FIRSTonline – Let's check your independence from everyone and also from Mediaset: if you conquer La7, would you be willing to confirm Enrico Mentana at the helm of the news and the politically oriented leftist programs of Michele Santoro and Gad Lerner?
GRIMALDI – If Mentana, Santoro and Lerner make profits, there's no problem for us: we'd be happy to keep them close. If, on the other hand, they make loss-making programs, we are not interested in them and we would not confirm them. If we win the tender, the philosophy of our schedule will be very clear: profit will drive us. Looking for it and maximizing it in a reasonable way is our job: we are a private equity fund and we cannot make loss-making operations. In the case of La7 and MTV we would behave like pure publishers and I think I can say that we would represent an absolute novelty for Italy: we would not accept any political conditioning and we would place only profitability based on quality at the center of our management.
