Italo's high-speed trains become American. Late yesterday evening, just before the midnight deadline struck, the board of directors of Ntv, which manages Italo's trains, gave the definitive green light to thepurchase offer of the American fund Global Infrastructure Partners (Gip) led by the legendary Adebayo Ogunlesi, the businessman of Nigerian origins who is part of various boards including that of Goldman Sachs.
To ensure Ntv, the American fund will pay 2 billion euros plus 450 in debt, thus reaching around 2,5 billion euros in all. The relaunch of Gpi carried out during the board of directors was decisive: in the face of the division of the board between shareholders who wanted to accept the original offer of the Americans of 1,9 billion (including Intesa Sanpaolo and Bombassei) and shareholders who for the IPO at the end of the month from which they hoped to make a greater profit, the raising of Gip from 1,9 to 2 billion (plus debt) swept away all doubts.
Yes, therefore, to the offer of the American fund and no more listing on the Stock Exchange, despite the fact that the Minister of Economy Pier Carlo Padoan and the Minister of Infrastructure, Graziano Delrio, had also spoken out for this second option.
This is how the second Italian railway operator changes flag which was born in 2006 and which, despite the initial obstructionism of the State Railways then led with a monopolistic mentality by Mauro Moretti, has gained more ground every year among passengers and has expanded its offer but above all he has rediscovered the profit after years of suffering. Much of the credit for the recovery and relaunch goes to the current CEO Flavio Cattaneo, who is also a shareholder and whom the Americans want to keep at the helm of the company together with the president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. Italian shareholders were offered the possibility of repurchasing Italo shares up to 25 of the capital.
The entry in force in Europe and above all in Italy of a very dynamic American fund specialized in infrastructures is a new element and, if it does not overturn the management criteria and the rules of Italo-Ntv, it could represent a further stimulus to competition for the benefit of travelers and a wake-up call to the State Railways which have postponed the landing on the Stock Exchange for too long.
On the other hand, there is no need to tear your clothes apart for Italo's change of flag in the name of an antihistorical economic nationalism. Defending the country's strategic assets is sacrosanct but only if they really are such, but in the strategic railways there is only the network, which remains the property of the State Railways, controlled by the Treasury: among the management companies it is right instead that the pluralism and competition for the benefit of consumers. And on this front it must be recognized that Italy is at the forefront in Europe.
