The comparison is open for the future quotation of Ferrovie dello Stato by the Government. The Treasury is organizing a working table with the heads of the Fs and the banks, to evaluate the best path for the listing of 40% of the company, which has recently received the new CEO Michele Elia and the new president Marcello Messori, who has privatization mandates. For the moment the meetings would have been with Mediobanca and Unicredit but an expansion to other national institutions such as Bnp-Bnl and Intesa Sanpaolo-Banca Imi is expected in September.
The objective is therefore the listing of FS on Piazza Affari by 2105, but new issues continue to emerge between the top management of the company, the Treasury and the banks. The potential collection for the State in the case of FS is enormous: until a few months ago it was estimated that from the sale of 50% of the holding company, around six billion euros could go into the Treasury's coffers.
The listing perimeter remains to be defined exactly: to list the entire FSA group or only the High Speed, which is the most profitable part of the business? There had also been heated discussions on the perimeter of the IPO in the past. The former CEO Mauro Moretti, for example, has always opposed the quotation for group prices at a time when a spin-off and privatization of only the high-speed line was proposed. But now the problem is different because - and this is a task specifically entrusted to President Messori - privatization must harmonize with liberalization and greater market opening up to evaluating the feasibility of the unbundling of the network from the group on the Terna or Snam model.
At the basis of the negotiations there would also be the desire to make the most of a group that represents one of the stories of recovery among state-owned companies. The growth of FS revenues over 2012 was 1,2%, while power costs fell by 0,2%.
