Italian State Might Buy Stake In Ansaldo STS -Report
24 September 2011 - 11:05PM
Dow Jones News
The Italian state could buy a stake in Ansaldo STS (STS.MI) to
prevent the maker of train signalling systems from falling into the
hands of foreigners, such as France's Alstom SA (ALO.FR) which
recent news reports have mentioned as a potential acquirer, daily
la Repubblica reports Saturday.
Ansaldo is controlled by Finmeccanica SpA (FNC.MI), Italy's
biggest defense and aerospace group. Finmeccanica is reviewing all
of its assets in a major restructuring and it could sell its stake
in Ansaldo because it is not part of its main business, such as
aeronautics and defense systems.But the state could buy into
Ansaldo because it belongs to the transportation sector deemed to
be strategic for the country, la Repubblica says, citing anonymous
sources.
The investment would be made by a new strategic investment fund
set up by Cassa depositi e prestiti, itself a state fund.
La Repubblica speaks of EUR4 billion that would be at the
disposal of this new fund to make investments in companies in
various sectors, but business daily Il Sole 24 Ore in a Saturday
report mentions a much smaller amount: some EUR1 billion.
Il Sole 24 Ore also speaks of the possibility that the new fund
could invest in Avio, an aerospace group which, according to news
reports, could also become a takeover target by foreigners.
Finmeccanica owns a stake in Avio. Finmeccanica, in turn, is
partly owned by the Italian state.
Italy is showing a growing reticence to a trend that has seen
companies being bought up by foreigners, especially French. This
year, dairy group Parmalat was acquired by Lactalis SA of France
and luxury group Bulgari by LMVH (MC.FR).
In another case, regional utility A2A SpA (A2A.MI) is in talks
with French power giant Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) over the
future of Edison SpA (EDN.MI), a power utility.
But La Repubblica says the fund would not look at buying into
Edison because its mandate would be to invest only in profitable
businesses, which Edison is not.
-By Gilles Castonguay, Dow Jones Newswires; +39 348 596 5667;
gilles.castonguay@dowjones.com
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