All postponed until tomorrow, Wednesday. The Board of Directors of Italo Ntv, which met today to evaluate the offer of the US fund Global Infrastructure Partner to take over 100% of the railway company for 1,9 billion, has decided to buy time until tomorrow, when the offer expires, at 17pm sharp. The decision will also have to take into account the state of the process aimed at listing on the stock exchange, whose request was presented on January 23 and which in theory should put a maximum of 40% of the share capital on the stock market.
“The Council has taken note of the information currently available e he thought it appropriate to keep the proceedings open until tomorrow afternoon when the financial advisor and the Company's Joint Global Coordinators present the elements necessary for the evaluation”, explains a note issued by Italo Ntv at the end of the Board meeting, while in the middle of the day the CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo Carlo Messina, speaking at the press conference after the presentation of the industrial plan of the bank, clearly reiterated that Intesa is ready to sell its stake in the face of an adequate offer. "Our participation in Italo is not strategic - Messina said - and when the conditions for exiting are met, we are in favor of divestment".
“We don't have to do the job of airplanes or the job of trains – added the manager of the institute which holds almost 19% of Italo Ntv, also alluding to the investment in Alitalia -. We have a calling to bank and we want to bank. Participation is not strategic. The operation is closed at the best possible valuation. However, I want to remember that some time ago it was us with our investment that saved Italo, when no one believed it".
Meanwhile, one thing is certain: in the event of a sale to the US fund for almost 2 billion, the shareholders of Italo Ntv would collect rich capital gains. In fact, Global Infrastructure Partner's offer is almost 4 times the value of the equity on which the entry of the Peninsula Capital fund and the 15 million euro capital increase reserved for CEO Flavio Cattaneo, who is also a 6% shareholder, were defined in the summer, while the main shareholders are precisely Intesa Sanpaolo, Generali and the founders Diego Della Valle and Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.
For example, Cattaneo's package would be valued at 110 million euros, while that of Peninsula Capital, which had risen to 13%, would reach 243 million, with a capital gain of 178 million. Intesa Sanpaolo would instead collect 360 million from the sale of the stake in Italo Ntv, for which the investment was around 30-35 million. The founding partners Della Valle, who holds 17,4%, Montezemolo with 12,70% and Gianni Punzo with 7,85% are brought together in a holding which in the event of its sale to GPI would collect around 720 million euros.
It should also be added that GPI's offer, valid for the entire share capital of the railway transport company, starts from a minimum acquisition of at least 75% of the capital of Italo Ntv, with the possibility for shareholders to reinvest up to a maximum of 25% of their share. Furthermore the offer envisages the granting of a put option concerning the entire reinvestment, exercisable as to 50% of the reinvested capital in the third year and as to the remaining 50% in the fifth year, under predefined conditions.
