#IGisback, this is the hashtag chosen for the return of Italgas on the Stock Exchange 13 years after the last time, when it was still controlled by Eni, and 113 years after its debut on Piazza Affari. The real debut of the company founded in 1837 in Turin actually took place as far back as 1951 on the Stock Exchange of the Kingdom of Sardinia, even before the unification of Italy.
But now Italgas is looking to the future, it is trendy on Twitter and has a completely new logo for this partial demerger from Snam, which will continue to control 13,5%, with 26% in the hands of Cdp and the remaining 60% placed in starting from 9.07 today on the electronic stock market (MTA) in Piazza Affari. But above all, the new course led by CEO Paolo Gallo under the presidency of Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, it is looking ahead with its investments, because as the CEO of Borsa Italiana Raffaele Jerusalmi recalls in his initial greeting, "quotation is a starting point, not an arrival point".
INVESTMENTS AND THE RACE FOR NEW CONCESSIONS
“In everything we will invest more than 4 billion over the next five years – explains Paolo Gallo to the audience of Palazzo Mezzanotte, illustrating the business plan -. Two billion will be allocated to the renewal of meters, the network and maintenance. We have currently replaced one million analog meters with smart ones, by 2018 all industrial operators and half of the mass market will be upgraded, and by 2020 everyone will have the new meters. As far as the networks are concerned, we are thinking above all of the coverage of the South". At the moment the meters of the first Italian player (and third in Europe) are 6,5 million, the goal is to reach 8 million by 2020, i.e. when the tenders for the new concessions, which are starting in this period, will be concluded .
“The objective – reveals Gallo – is to move from the current market share of 33% to 40%, thanks to the new area tenders that favor the most financially and industrially equipped operators”. With the new rules, concessions will no longer be assigned city by city but across 177 relevant territorial areas (so-called Atem). At the moment Italgas is present in 113 (which correspond to 1.470 municipalities and 7,6 billion cubic meters of gas transported) out of 177, while the market is still highly fragmented: “With the liberalization of the gas market in 2000, operators have gone from 730 to 227, still too many compared to the European average. The new concession tenders will favor the groups best equipped both to purchase the concessions themselves and to innovate”.
For the concessions, in fact, Italgas has already planned a further investment of around 2,2 billion, between now and 2020: 1,3 billion to be awarded them and another billion, almost, to renew the plants, in some cases reaching the limit of their functionality. "At the end of this operation - reveals the managing director of Italgas - our RAB will go from the current 5,7 to 7 billion".
A GOOD DEBUT
Returning to quotation, Italgas made a good start, in a particularly positive start to the session for the entire Milanese stock market: after a few minutes the stock gained more than 1%, to 4,044 euros per share, while the Snam it dropped 14,8% to 3,9 euros. Both stocks then stabilized and, in closing, Italgas lost 0,7%, while Snam returned to the upside (+4,23%). Due to the partial and proportional demerger from Snam, 700.127.659 ordinary shares with no par value were attributed to Snam shareholders in the ratio of 1 Italgas share for every 5 Snam shares held.
Snam, which took over 100% of Italgas from Eni in 2003 for around 1,5 billion euro, will continue for its part to concentrate on its preferred core business: that of transmission, on an intercontinental level, with a leading role in Europe in the Energy Union project. “Someone – said theCEO of Snam Marco Alverà – thought that the split could weaken the two companies, but we think exactly the opposite. Each one will be able to dedicate itself to its own business, with the necessary investments. Two national champions are better than one”. And so while Italgas will enter the homes of almost half of Italians, Snam will participate in the great connection of networks in Europe, starting with the Tap gas pipeline but not only: "The European scenario is changing - explained Alverà -, in the coming years the Europe will increase its gas needs and therefore imports. And that's why we are here. Italy has a strategic role as a hub in the Mediterranean area and after the COP21 agreements signed in Paris, gas will play an increasingly important role in the energy market”.
