by Marco Principini
BOLOGNA
“There are no alternative scenarios to the privatization of Industria Italiana Bus, other than the liquidation of the company itself.” The Minister of Business, Adolfo Urso, said it clearly in the chamber, who yesterday morning responded to the urgent question of the deputies of the Democratic Party, Andrea De Maria and Toni Ricciardi, on the ministry’s green light for the sale of Invitalia shares to Seri Industrial of Italian bus industry. In short, no alternative consortium, such as the Bolognese traction one, was really in the field, claims the minister, with sufficient guarantees for the development and survival of the last factory in Italy that builds buses. But the minister’s words soon spread back to Bologna, triggering the anger of the entrepreneur and vice-president of Confindustria Maurizio Marchesini, who spoke of an “inexplicable and offensive” attitude, while the corporate unions of the Bologna factories (formerly BredaMenarinibus, 179 employees) and Flumeri (formerly Irisbus, 370 employees) are organizing local fighting actions for Monday and Tuesday.
“What have we found? A disaster. What have we done? We have restored the company. What do we want to do? Now we can finally accompany it in market growth”, the minister continued bluntly, recalling the recent history of Indfustria italiana bus, since in 2019, after yet another crisis and the disruption caused by the private partner, “the Conte government decided to bring Invitalia into the field with a 42.76% shareholding, joining Leonardo, Finmeccanica heir, in BredaMenarinibus and the Turkish company Karsan”. But although the State had guaranteed almost 200 million euros of public funds for the relaunch, the situation was “compromised, the result of choices prior to our mandate and of absolutely incorrect corporate strategies. In fact, the two companies, once the jewels of Italian buses , had become, together with the public sector, state caravans, in which to place the screwed managers”, sunk Urso. But this is well-known history, the match against Bologna is a more recent issue. “23 expressions of interest were presented, of which only one resulted in a truly binding offer and was not subject to conditions that would not qualify it as such. Only one out of the 23 expressions of interest”, remarked Urso. As for the offer of the consortium which includes Valerio Gruppioni, Maurizio Marchesini, Maurizio Stirpe and Nicola Benedetto, it was “not a supplementary offer, as requested, given the expiry of the terms, but rather an alternative and, unfortunately, worse than to that of Seri Industrial, especially from an industrial point of view, as it is not accompanied by a development plan, nor provided with guarantees regarding employment levels, assets and business continuity”.
Marchesini’s reaction, however, reached Rome with the same force: “We are serious entrepreneurs and we don’t want to be treated in this way – he let the minister know, dotting the i’s –. We made an offer, we renewed and finalized it at the request of the ministry and we did not receive any official response. We read them in the newspapers, it was enough to say that our offer was not economically viable”. Then Marchesini responded to the statement according to which the government would have restored Iia: “A company is restored when it starts working, when it does research and development, pays on time, hires and not when it is sold. We will see if it is truly restored in 2 -3 years”. Now, “due to statements made by them, he loses 7 million a month.”
