Autostrade goes public again, Atlantia accepts CDP-funds offer

The Aspi dossier crosses the finish line and after 22 years the motorways leave the Benetton galaxy to return to the public wing. The board of directors of Atlantia today gave the final go-ahead and accepted the binding offer for the acquisition of 88.06% of Autostrade per l’Italia, presented by the consortium led by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti with the foreign funds Blackstone and Macquarie. A new stage that comes after that of May 31 last when the shareholders’ meeting of the infrastructure holding gave green light to the proposal by the board of directors to sell the entire stake held in Autostrade per l’Italia to the consortium. The meeting in consultative way had, in fact, expressed a favorable opinion with 86.86% of the share capital present. And the board of Atlantia, taking into account the shareholders’ vote, placed the last piece of the transaction by approving the offer and conferred on the chairman Fabio Cerchiai and the managing director Carlo Bertazzo for the finalization and signing of the agreement in compliance The agreement is subject to the conditions precedent that must occur by March 31, 2022 (Long Stop Date) or the other date that will be agreed between the parties, but in any case no later than June 30, 2022. L The sale agreement provides that the closing cannot in any case take place, even if the conditions are met, before November 30, 2021.A little less than three years after the tragedy of Ponte Morandi and almost a year after the agreement at Palazzo Chigi, Aspi it is ready to return to the public sphere. These were years in which the Benetton motorways were in the eye of the storm with the sword of Damocles of the revocation of the concession. In particular, in the past 11 months, the operation has traveled on a roller coaster between phases of stall and often close to failure. It took months of intense negotiations between the parties to arrive at the final proposal that arrived on the board of the board of Atlantia, which evaluates, after the last adjustment of 200 million, 100% of Aspi at 9.3 billion euros. the road was now downhill as it was understood by the board of Atlantia on 30 April last, which recognized the improvements made to the offer by the Cdp-Fondo consortium and pointed out that, at present, the only concrete alternative to the offer for the divestment of the investment in Aspi consisted in continuing and completing the litigation initiatives already initiated both in administrative offices in Italy and in Europe. It should be remembered that what stirred the waters was the expression of interest presented by the owner of ACS Florentino Perez, which however did not translate into an offer.