Listed utilities are good for local government budgets shareholders, even if the Stock Exchange does not always reward them. As indicated by the R&S-Mediobanca report on the main investee companies of the major Italian local authorities, from 2003 to 2015 the six listed companies taken into consideration (with a total capitalization of 12,6 billion) recorded a cumulative appreciation, in terms of total return of 172%, almost 50 points higher than that achieved by all listed industrial companies. The returns are less satisfactory if they are calculated starting from the placement price: for the five companies for which it is possible to calculate, only in two cases is there a positive change at the end of June: Hera with a brilliant +102% and Acea with +17,8% as at 30 June last.
Instead, there is a minus sign for Acsm-Agam, A2A and Iren. In any case, in addition to the proceeds from the placement, the local shareholder entities collected cumulative dividends of 2003 billion euro between 2016 and 3,2. The disbursements for capital increases in 2014 instead stopped at 170 million euro. The yield offered by shares (dividend yield), after the three-year period 2010-2012 in which it stood at values always above 4%, decreased to 2,8% for the dividends collected in 2015. Starting from 2012 and, previously also in 2008, however, listed utilities have always guaranteed a higher yield than alternative investments. Compared to Italian government bonds, the average dividend yield in 2015 was 2,7 points higher.
VERTICES - In addition to the financial results, the Mediobanca report also analyzes the position of the appointments. As of 2014, the 115 major Italian local authorities had installed over 1.900 representatives of their own nomination in the corporate bodies of investee companies and almost half (869) are top management positions.
The municipalities express the highest number of appointments (895, half of them top management), ahead of the regions (598) and the provinces (421). In 2014-15 publicly appointed directors were recognized as a total compensation of 33,5 million euros, for 77% the prerogative of top positions. The average basic salary (i.e. excluding attendance fees, allowances, bonuses and other items) was 23.300 euros, between the more than 35.100 for top management and a scant 11 euros for the others. The most generous local authorities are the regions with an average salary of 28 euros, ahead of the municipalities (22.300) and the provinces (18.800).
Venice (49) and Rome (42) these are the cities that expressed the highest number of nominations in the subsidiaries. Among the provinces, the most prolific are Trento (75) and Bolzano (62). Among the regions nominations go-go for the Valle d'Aosta (100), clearly ahead of Sicily (59) and Friuli Venezia Giulia and Campania (47). A certain effort to rationalize and contain costs should also be noted: in the last five years the number of appointments has dropped by 35%, as well as total compensation, while the average compensation per position was cut by 8,3%.
Among the curiosities reported by the report, the relationship between the remuneration of appointees and the wealth of local areas to which they refer. Thus the remuneration of a position in a subsidiary of the Municipality of Salerno is equal to 2,7 times the regional GDP per capita. If the appointment is made by the province of Reggio Calabria, the compensation is on average 2,7 times the per capita GDP, up to 4,7 times in the Basilicata Region. Liguria, on the other hand, stops at 1,7 times.
