The family wants to preserve the “Italianity” of the motor of motorway and airport concessions that covets Spanish Grupo ACS.
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The operation has been in the air for days and had been largely anticipated by the markets, provoking, since the beginning of April, a sharp rise in Atlantia course on the Milan Stock Exchange. Thursday, April 14, the Benetton Family and the Blackstone American Investment Fund have made a public redemption operation that manages many highways and airports. The objective is to create a new company to redeem the entire title of the group, in order to bring it out of the rating, thus securing the “Italianity” of a giant infrastructure, by putting it safely lusts.
By fixing the redemption price at 23 euros the action (plus an exceptional dividend of 74 cents), the offer values Atlantia at 19 billion euros, and it seems to have been welcomed favorably by the markets. Thursday evening, at the closing of the Milan Stock Exchange, the course of Atlantia action had increased by nearly 5%, thus joining the value proposed by the Benetton family.
But the general impression is that this maneuver is only an entry in matter, aimed at taking the Spaniard Grupo ACS, whose appetite for Atlantia is a mystery for anyone – the giant of the BTP, directed by Florentino Perez (moreover, President of Real Madrid), announced, in early April, which he worked, with the Funds Global Infrastructure Partners and Brookfield, a buyback offer aimed primarily at seizing concessions Atlantia motorways. Now is his counter-attack that is expected in the coming days.
A comfortable war treasure
Dealer of nearly 10,000 kilometers of highways around the world and manager of five airports (including those of Rome-Fiumicino and Nice), the group, which carried out more than 600 million euros of profits in 2021, has everything to stir up the covet. For Benetton, who hold, so far, more than 33%, through their Holding Edizione, this asset is of paramount importance: much more than the merger of wool sweaters, origin of the fortune of the clan, It is he now, who constitutes the heart of the family heritage.
For the new President of Edizione, Alessandro Benetton, arrived at the group’s head in January, this operation is a fire baptism. It has, in order to reach its ends, a comfortable treasure of war: the 8 billion euros that must bring to Atlantia the sale of autostrade per the Italia to a consortium led by the Caisse des Dépôts Italian (associated, For this operation, the Blackstone and Macquarie Funds).
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