Italy to sell 40 percent of public railway company in 2016
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Italy to sell 40 percent of public railway company in 2016

Italy to sell 40 percent of public railway company in 2016

di lettura
(AGI) Rome, Nov 23 - The Italian government approved to sell 40percent of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. (FS), thepublic railway company, in 2016 during a cabinet meeting onMonday. The sale proposal was contained in a draft executivedecree prepared by the Ministry of Economy and Finance inconjunction with the Ministry for Economic Development, incompliance with the legislation on privatisations. A statementreleased at the end of the cabinet meeting reads as follows:"The decree will be sent to the competent parliamentarycommittees for consultation. The decree will regulate the saleof a stake in the company of no more than 40 percent andprovides that the sale, which can be finalised in severalphases, be made through a public offer opened to Italiansavers, the employees of the Ferrovie dello Stato Group andItalian and international institutional investors, and throughits quotation on the stock exchange. The draft decree, in orderto facilitate participation in the offer, also envisages bonusschemes for the employees of the Ferrovie dello Stato Group, incompliance with market practices and the procedures applied inprevious privatisation operations, in terms of the quotareserved for them in the initial public offering (IPO) andminimum guaranteed shareholdings, of the price (as in previousprivatisation operations or in the form of a larger bonus sharethan for the general public) and of financing procedures. Theoperation marks the beginning of the official process to sellpart of the shares of Ferrovie dello Stato, which forms part ofthe government's privatisation plan that recently led tolisting Poste Italiane, the Italian postal service, andschedules the listing of ENAV, the Air Traffic Control service,by the first half of 2016. The privatisation of FS is scheduledto be finalised in 2016, compatibly with favourable marketconditions. As with FS, the privatisation of part of thecompany will represent an opportunity to reform theorganisation of the public transport sector with the aim ofoffering citizens a better and more efficient service. FS willbe strengthened and will be able to enhance its effort toincrease efficiency and expand on foreign markets. Despite theprivatisation process, the railway infrastructures willcontinue to be owned by the State." (AGI). .
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