“We are defining the capital increase, it will be between 50 and 70 million”. He confirmed it today George Fossa, president of Il Sole 24 Ore, during the hearing in the Chamber before the joint Finance, Culture and Productive Activities commissions during which he spoke of the financial situation which he himself defined as "very heavy" of the publishing group, on which 61,6, 16,4 million losses against a shareholders' equity reduced to 10 million euros, currently under investigation by the Milan prosecutor's office. Under investigation, we recall, XNUMX people, investigated for false corporate communications and embezzlement in relation to the alleged fictitious subscription of thousands of digital subscriptions, including the now former director Roberto Napoletano, placed on leave during the last extraordinary board of directors , the former president of the Benito Benedini Group and the former CEO Donatella Treu.
Because of what happened, the top management of the group would be considering the possibility of proceeding with a liability action against the previous directors: “If the conditions are right, yes, I'm sorry but we won't be able to do anything else, because I must, above all, save the company, save the people who work there and protect the current directors. We have started an audit – Fossa explained – with Price Water House & Cooper's to verify if the conditions are there from a civil point of view, also because I have my own personal story, sometimes positive and sometimes negative, but I'm not that crazy, even being so for having taken this potato, to answer for the others, neither I, nor the managing director, nor the directors are.
During today's hearing, Fossa also spoke of the business plan presented by the Group on 20 Marchor, reiterating the guidelines of the project which, at least in the intentions of the top management, should return to profitability as early as 2018 and which, as far as the newspaper is concerned, envisages aa strong reduction in costs which will be achieved through cuts and redundancies. “We started between yesterday and today, we opened the table with the union, I can't tell you – replied Fossa to a deputy's question – today the numbers. We will use all the instruments of the law, there will be a reduction in the workforce of journalists, executives, polygraphs, graphics and radio and we will try to do it as painlessly as possible. 28 have already left with early retirement, – continued the president of the Group – there will also be executives. We will try to do it with respect for everyone, we have set aside a sum to accompany these releases ". Savings will also come "by drastically reducing external collaborators and costs for third-party columnists" of the newspaper, this "will make it possible to control the number of redundancies that unfortunately there will be".
From the point of view of editorial strategy however, the road to recovery passes through a return to the past. According to Fossa, “the troubles of Il Sole 24 Ore began when someone got it into his head that this should no longer be, with all due respect, the journal of accountants, but should become a generalist journal; a generalist newspaper will never be Il Sole 24 Ore”. And he recalled that "when the tables of accountants, accountants, lawyers and entrepreneurs filled up, being a specialist, the Sun had important results".
No discount on mistakes made in the recent past, but after "the big waste and big mistakes that have been made in recent years, today we are faced with a situation such that the shareholders, starting with Confindustria, must do their part and certainly the banks will have to watch us carefully, because they will have to lend us a hand for a certain period of time, and then the Sole will be able to come back strong, he will be able to give results as foreseen in our plan, otherwise we don't have great alternatives, because with the numbers we have inherited it is difficult to get out". Responding to a question about the possible “influence” exercised by the previous director, he said: “Today Neapolitan is substantially out of the newspaperand, so let's turn the page".
For the role that Confindustria will have, Giorgio Fossa confirmed what was stated by the number one of Viale dell'Astronomia Vincenzo Boccia who this morning left the door open to a possible reduction in the share held by the Confederation "In theory everything is possible, you ask me questions about the realm of the possible, and the realm of the possible I say yes, then we will go into the merits in the next few days ”.
"In my opinion, it is not necessary for Confindustria to remain at 67%” Fossa reiterated when asked about the possibility of reducing the share of the first shareholder in the publishing group. "Perhaps the lower we go and the more the group becomes contestable, the more we do the interests of the company," said the former president of Confindustria.
The board of directors of the Sun should meet this week to define the bailout plan. Subsequently, the top management of Confindustria will make a final decision on the timing and amount of the recapitalization.
In Piazza Affari, after the rally of the last few weeks, the Sole 24 Ore share dropped 2,05%.
