Privatizations, the government’s plan
It is essential to continue with privatizations to obtain financial resources. The economic situation is difficult, with high public debt and few resources available. The Meloni government, busy preparing the new Budget Law for 2025, and pressed by the September 20 deadline, the date by which it must present the Medium-Term Budget Structural Plan to the European Commission – the plan for recovering from the excessive deficit envisaged by the new Stability and Growth Pact – is evaluating every possible strategy to raise billions of euros. It is written Online Finance.
Among the strategies, the already announced one is the privatizations, i.e. the sale of additional state shares in some state-owned companiesThe names are the well-known ones: Mps, Eni, Poste Italiane, State Railways. According to the newspaper The Messengerthe Meloni government now intends to accelerate the process, aiming to raise between 5 and 6 billion euros from privatisations in 2025.
Another goal is to maintain state control over the companies involved. So far, the government has collected €3 billion from the sale of stakes in MPS and Eni. In the case of MPS, still controlled by the Treasury as the main shareholder, the Ministry of Economy and Finance sold an initial 25% stake at the end of last year, collecting around €920 million, through an accelerated book building (ABB), followed by a further sale of 12.5% at the beginning of this year, which brought another €650 million to the state coffers.
A third move by the Meloni government regarding MPS is still awaited, which has not yet materialized, writes Finanza On Line. In this regard, Equita SIM recalled that the State should reduce its stake in MPS, which fell from approximately 64% to 26.7% after the two divestments, below 20% by the end of 2024, as established in the agreements with Brussels.
SIM believes that there is the possibility of negotiating a postponement of the deadline, considering that, according to rumors reported by Il Messaggero, the Meloni government is making strategic evaluations. The aim is to prevent Monte dei Paschi di Siena (Mps) from being vulnerable to a takeover bid by a foreign investor and is considering the option of finding an industrial partner (in recent weeks there had been talk of Unipol as a possible new partner in the insurance sector).
It still remains to be understood whether the Meloni government really has the intention of completely abandoning the Siena institute. According to Equita, the real political will to completely exit the bank’s capital is still uncertain. For now, rumors indicate that MPS remains one of the assets on which the executive intends to act to give new impetus to the privatization process, with the possibility of selling a further share, perhaps by the end of the year.
In mid-May, Another step in the Meloni government’s privatization plan concerned Eni: 91,965,735 ordinary shares were sold of the energy giant led by CEO Claudio Descalzi, equal to approximately 2.8% of the share capital. This operation also took place through an ‘Accelerated Book Building – ABB’, reserved for qualified investors in Italy and foreign institutional investors, with proceeds of 1.4 billion euros.
In total, between MPS and Eni, the State has collected 3 billion euros, as part of a three-year privatization plan that aims to collect 20 billion euros, with the objective of stemming the deterioration of public finances. The technicians are considering the possibility of replicating the airport model also with ports, opening the management of ports to private individuals and allowing the entry of investment funds, given that the port and logistics business has relatively stable costs and revenues.
It is not yet clear whether this opening to private individuals will concern each individual port or whether a super Port Authority could be created. In any case, in the new hub, the State would still maintain a majority or controlling share, since these are strategic infrastructures for the country.
Starting in 2025, other privatizations could be considered, involving Ferrovie dello Stato and Trenitalia. According to Equita, the intentions of the Meloni government would not stop here: Also under discussion is the creation of an ad hoc fund to which part of the enormous public real estate assets (estimated at 1.8 trillion euros) could be transferred, where, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the value of the “transferable” properties would be around 300 billion euros.
As for Enav, the sale of 20% of the capital is being considered, from which the State could obtain 400 million euros. According to the newspaper, the group led by Matteo Del Fante remains “one of the most attractive on the market”, and already “since the beginning of the summer” there has been discussion about the possible move by the Treasury on Poste Italiane.
Equita SIM recalled that “the State owns a total of 64.3% of Poste, of which 29.3% is held by the MEF and 35% through CDP”. Regarding a possible initiative by the Meloni government on the group listed on the Ftse Mib of Piazza Affari, Equita SIM has underlined that “Poste Italiane represents a concrete option for the State to raise new resources”.
“Based on the agreements with the unions, the Government has committed to maintaining a share of at least 50% in Poste, even if the decree approved by the Council of Ministers in January (which was not formalized after the favorable opinion of the parliamentary commissions) would allow it to go down to 35%,” SIM recalls, quoting the newspaper’s indiscretions. The sale of 15% of Poste Italiane could bring the State approximately 2.4 billion euros at current prices,” Equita added.
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