The new offer of CDP to take over, with Blackstone e Macquarie, up to 100% (depending on membership) of Motorways for Italy, it was delivered overnight to Atlantia. According to what is written by Milan Finance – is that Affaritaliani.it was able to verify with accredited sources – the amount of money guaranteed has not changed (which remains 9.1 billion euros), but there was a “refinement” of the accessory clauses. Furthermore, it seems likely that the speech also focused mainly on any penalties and indemnities relating to previous maintenance work.
(source Lapresse)
The time for the meeting of the board of directors of the Benetton-controlled holding has been set for 4 pm, but just a few minutes before 2 pm they would rumors were leaked from funds that they felt the offer was too low. In particular, there was talk of Tci, a British activist fund that has long ago declared that the correct valuation of Autostrade per l’Italia is around 11-12 billion.
The fund had been among the most active in promoting it spinoff of Aspi da Atlantia to verify the possibility of finding other buyers. But the recent assembly, after the declaration of intent of the Benettons and the Crt Foundation, had rejected this possibility by defining Cdp, Macquarie and Blackstone as the only interlocutors, that is the consortium that has been trying for months to take over at least 88% held by the holding.
The issue of Aspi’s evaluation is a long-standing one: many, in fact, believed that what was guaranteed by the consortium was lower than the real value of Autostrade. But it is also true that no one, beyond a few intemperate – not least that of Florentino Perez – Yes is presented with a concrete offer in the hands.
It amazes, moreover, the timing: the rumors leaked of a possible rejection of the offer, with open stock exchanges, on such an important dossier that involves the country’s strategic assets, represent a blatant violation. Consob has not intervened for the moment, but it is certain that attention needs to be kept very high.
Naturally this is an operation that he would like artfully put pressure on the board of directors, trying to initiate a further postponement in the hope of obtaining better conditions. But as it turns out ad Affaritaliani.it Cdp, which for months it has been going on with due diligence and punctual analysis of all accounts, she would not be interested in going into bids. The deadline for the offer was extended to 31 May. But the story still seems far from over.
Furthermore, yesterday, Cdp also gave the green light for the acquisition of a 10% stake in Open Fiber, in order to hold the absolute majority of the company in view of the creation of AccessCo, the single network company.
Some analysts have raised the perplexity that the European Antitrust might not endorse a hypothetical conflict of interest for CDP, which would be at the same time the majority shareholder of Open Fiber and owner of Tim shares (9.9%). But according to accredited sources, the problem does not arise from Via Goito: the project goes on and no one fears another trip from Brussels.