Italy scales back plans to sell stake in Poste
Adds unions, detail and background
By Giuseppe Fonte
ROME, May 30 (Reuters) -Italy will retain 51% of Poste Italiane PST.MI, the Treasury told unions on Thursday, scaling back a previous plan to cut the state's stake in the postal service to as low as 35% from 64% currently.
The move highlights the government's difficulties in respecting its pledge to use asset sales to rein in Italy's massive public debt.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced a decree in January to allow the Treasury to dispose all or part of its 29.3% stake in Poste while retaining control through another 35% stake held by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP).
But after facing widespread criticism for selling part of a key public service, Italy now plans to review the decree to place a smaller stake in Poste, the Treasury said in a meeting with trade unions.
"We have been assured that the state will never go below 51%," trade union Cisl representative Raffaele Roscigno told reporters.
The downscaled sale is part of Rome's programme to raise about 0.7% of GDP from asset sales between 2025 and 2027 to curb one of the world's highest public debts in relation to domestic output.
Italy's debt, the second highest in the euro zone after Greece, is seen soaring towards 140% of output through 2026 before starting declining marginally the following year.
The final decree is expected to be adopted in the next three weeks, Roscigno said, adding that it would provide incentives to persuade Poste employees to buy the company's shares and maintain a broad shareholder base.
Italy raised 3.1 billion euros ($3.35 billion) in 2015 by selling a 35% Poste stake in an initial public offering that valued the group at 8.8 billion euros. Poste is now worth 16.5 billion euros.
Treasury would then pocket just above 2 billion euros from the sale of roughly 13% of Poste.
Unions remain cautious after the Treasury announcement, with the CGIL trade union calling on the government to abandon any plans for divestment.
"Sale would be a very bad deal for the country," said Fabrizio Solari from CGIL.
Unions argue that proceeds stemming from any sale would in any case be lower than the dividends paid by Poste over a long-term horizon.
Poste plans to pay out 6.5 billion euros in dividends between 2024 and 2028, up from the 3.8 billion euros it distributed over the previous five years.
In its drive to raise cash, Italy pocketed 3 billion euros since November 2023 via the sales of stakes in bailed out bank Monte dei Paschi (MPS) BMPS.MI and energy group Eni ENI.MI.
($1 = 0.9249 euros)
Editing by Gianluca Semeraro and David Evans
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
