Great Stations Retail, the company that owns a bouquet of 14 railway stations spread across 11 Italian cities, is sale. He writes it on Corriere della Sera, according to which the French private equity fund Antin Infrastructure Partners, with its 65% share, together with the two minority partners, the fund Icamap (23%) and Borletti Group by Maurizio Borletti (11%), would have entrusted UBS with the task of managing the reorganization through its team of London bankers. An atmosphere full of interest can be felt in the air, which will come to life at the end of March according to the newspaper, when the expressions of intent from institutional investors must reach the members of Grandi Stazioni.
The acquisition of Grandi Stazioni by Antin and his partners, which took place seven years ago, cost around one billion euros with a public tender by the former owners, state Railways ed Eurostations. Today, the value of the group is close to the threshold of 1,5 billion euros. Depending on the agreements with the new buyer, Borletti and Icamap could decide to reinvest in a minority form.
Grandi Stazioni: 850 shops frequented by 750 million people a year
Grandi Stazioni currently manages, under concession until 2045, 850 shops in the commercial galleries of railway yards frequented by 750 million people per year. Among the pearls of its portfolio, we find the stations of Milan Centrale, Turin Porta Nuova, Venice Santa Lucia and Mestre, Verona Porta Nuova, Genoa Piazza Principe and Brignole, Bologna Centrale, Florence Santa Maria Novella, Rome Tiburtina and Termini, Naples Centrale, Bari and Palermo. Destinations which, with an expansion of the high-speed lines, are destined to attract more and more visitors.
Emirates and Qatar in the front row
Among the potential buyers stand out the sovereign funds of the Middle East, with names such as Adia and Mubadala degli United Arab Emirates, and Qia del Qatar. But the entry onto the scene of investment vehicles from European insurance companies such as Predica, or funds specialized in the infrastructure and real estate universe, such as the French Altarea, winners of the auction for Cento Stazioni in 2019, or the Swedes by Eqt.
