Deep red in Piazza Affari for the Enel stock, which at the beginning of the afternoon lost more than two percentage points, at 4,068 euros per share. The sales on the public electricity giant come on a day in which various press organs have spread rumors about the privatization of 5% of the group. According to a source quoted by the Reuters agency, the Treasury has started the search process for consultants for the operation, placing the 31 December of the 2015 as the final term of the mandate.
If yesterday investors' attention was concentrated on the 4-6 billion maxi-coupon that the Spanish subsidiary Endesa could distribute before Enel announces it will expand its free float to 25%, today the market is once again giving credence to the rumors about the sale of actions by the Government (a hypothesis made even more likely by the slowdown in the IPO of Poste Italiane). Despite today's share performance, analysts remain positive on the electricity group, also in view of the restructuring of the holdings that is looming on the horizon.
To reduce the public debt, the Government aimed to collect around 11 billion from privatizations in 2014. At the moment, the Executive has allocated only 3 of the approximately 3,5 billion received from Banca MPS for this purpose for the partial repayment of the Monti bonds. At current market values, 5% of Enel is worth just under 2 billion and – once the operation is complete – the government would continue to control the group with 26,24% of the capital.
At the beginning of September, with reference to Enel and Eni, the premier Matteo Renzi he had said that he "does not consider it a priority to reduce the state's shares in two companies that have great potential".
A few days earlier a government source had told Reuters that the disposal program aimed to put 5% of Enel and 4,34% of Eni on the market between October and early December. Within the year, 50% of Stm Holding, the company that controls 27,64% of STMicroelectronics, should also be sold. On the other hand, the sale of 2015% of Poste and 40% of Enav has been postponed to 49, transactions that have a total value of between 5 and 6 billion.
