Atlantia edging closer to deal with govt on motorway licence – sources
By Giuseppe Fonte and Stephen Jewkes
ROME (Reuters) - Atlantia <ATL.MI> is edging closer to a deal with the Italian government that could draw a line under a bitter dispute over the infrastructure group's tollroad concession, two sources close to the matter said.
The government has been threatening to pull the motorway licence of Atlantia's Autostrade per l'Italia unit since August 2018, when a bridge operated by Autostrade in Genoa collapsed, killing 43 people.
The Benetton-led group and the government are now negotiating over a new ownership structure for Autostrade, a penalty to compensate for the bridge disaster and new rules for the tolls and the licence, the sources said.
A government source and another source said Atlantia and Rome were discussing a penalty for the group of more than 3 billion euros (2.63 billion pounds) as compensation for the bridge disaster.
After months of wrangling, the coronavirus crisis which is seen triggering Italy's worst recession in modern history has created the conditions for the parties to reach a compromise.
An agreement would unlock billions of euros of planned investments by Atlantia at a time when corporate investment spending in Italy is expected to collapse.
A third source said the government had recently taken a more positive approach towards Atlantia, but added that, to clinch a compromise, the two had to agree on all the issues on the table and some of them were still controversial.
"The government is now willing to reach a deal," a government source said.
Atlantia and the ruling coalition have agreed that the company should cut its 88% stake in Autostrade below 50%, making way for other investors, the sources said.
"The government is in favour of (infrastructure fund) F2i and (state lender) CDP becoming investors in the motorway operator," the government source said, adding that Rome did not want foreign groups to hold sway at Autostrade.
Atlantia, the transport ministry, CDP and F2i declined to comment.
The sources said that the two sides are still to find common ground on how to change a law ratified in February that makes it easier and less costly for the government to revoke the licence.
The government does not want to scrap the new law, the government source said, but added that Rome was open to modifying it.
Atlantia has said the law dents its ability to borrow on the open markets, making it very difficult to finance investments.
Two other thorny issues in the settlement of the deal are the valuation of Autostrade and the method for calculating tolls.
(Additional reporting by Francesca Landini in Milan and Stefano Bernabei in Rome; Editing by Susan Fenton)
