Italian State Might Buy Stake In Ansaldo STS -Report

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

A2A (BIT:A2A)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jan 2025 to Feb 2025