2i Rete Gasthe second natural gas distributor in Italy, controlled by the infrastructure giant F2i sgr (63.9%) and jointly owned by the Dutch pension fund APG Asset Management and the French private equity group Ardianthrough Finavias sarlobtained from a pool of banking institutions a revolving loan of 200 million euros. In practice the company went to refinance the bank debt. Subject to the satisfaction of the envisaged conditions, the contract provides that the credit line may in the future be classified as “sustainability-linked”.
An in-house team led by acted for 2i Rete Gas Simone Agulini, head of corporate affairs & corporate governance, assisted by Walter Cavalli. Clifford Chance advised the pool of financial institutions in relation to the financing.
We remind you that 2i Rete Gas started the preparatory process for the listing on Euronext Milangiving a mandate to assist Goldman Sachs International for this purpose (see another article by BeBeez) and has some preliminary meetings with investors are scheduled for this month (see another article by BeBeez). The objective is to place shares for a countervalue equal to 600 million euros towards the beginning of autumn on the basis of a overall rating Of 5 billionwhich includes around 3 billion Of debt.
At the IPO on Euronext Milan, strongly supported by the fund led by Renato Ravanelli, Goldman Sachs, Mediobanca, Unicredit, Intesa Sanpaolo IMI and BNP Paribas are working as global coordinators and bookrunners. The proceeds from the operation will be used to finance the future growth of the company, both in Italy and abroad, with particular attention to the energy transition and the development of sustainable solutions.
Entry onto the stock list would represent an important step for the company, which is preparing to play a leading role in the decarbonisation of the energy sector and in the challenge of security of supply. Financial analysts view the operation favorably, underlining the company’s financial solidity and growth prospects. The placement could also represent an interesting opportunity for investors who wish to focus on a growing player in the Italian energy sector, with a focus on the ecological transition. The arrival of 2i Rete Gas on Piazza Affari would also give greater depth to the Italian stock market at a time of strong interest for investors in companies in the energy sector and ecological transition.
The operation would be preferred, at the moment, to the sale to Italgasthe national leader in the distribution of natural gas, which in March through JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley presented a preliminary purchase proposal, valorising 2i Rete Gas between 4 And 5 billion euros. The reason lies first and foremost in the fact that the aggregation between the first and second operators in the sector could encounter obstacles on the antitrust front, without forgetting the increase in the debt of the new entity that would be created. Referring to possible limitations of competition, the CEO of Italgas, Paolo Gallohe however said, on the sidelines of the shareholders’ meeting of May 6th, that “it is not a problem that I ask myself”.
According to some rumours, 2i Rete Gas would in reality have officially rejected the proposal, while according to others the offer of the listed group would have only been put on standby pending a possible improvement in the offer or in the event that the market between September and October should not be particularly favourable.
2i Rete Gas boasts a solid financial base and a positive growth track record. The group closed out 2023 with a profit of 182.1 milliona EBITDA of 546.3 million And adjusted revenuesnet of accounting components which have a direct counterpart in costs and extraordinary items, up by 11.7%, at 815 million euros (see another article by BeBeez). The increase recorded (+85.5 million euros) is mainly a consequence of the management for the entire financial year of the plants of the tender won by theAtem Napoli 1 and by the recognition of a remuneration linked to the residual value of the electronic meters, the replacement of which occurred before the end of their useful life (see another article in BeBeez). Atem Napoli 1 includes the Neapolitan city and five municipalities in the province: Ercolano, Portici, San Giorgio a Cremano, Torre Annunziata and Torre del Greco.
Net financial debt increased by 2.1%, from approximately 3.2 billion euros in 2022 to almost 3.3 billion euros as of 31 December 2023. The figure also includes financial liabilities for the application of the accounting standard Ifrs16 (23.7 million euros). The increase of 67.4 million euros is the result of the increase in operational investments, the increase in net working capital (mainly deriving from receivables from CSEA) and benefits from the collection of the value of the hedging derivative in the month of June for approximately 96 million euros.
On the subject of debt, we remind you that at the end of May 2023 the group has placed a new 550 million euro bondexpiring in June 2033 with a 4.375% coupon (see another article by BeBeez), which was listed on the market Euronext Dublin, where 5 other 2i Rete Gas bonds are already listed. The bond was launched at the end of May at the same time as the announcement of a €600 million bond repurchase offer with 3% coupon and maturity 16 July 2024 up to a maximum of 300 million euros. The bond in question was part of theinaugural issue of 1.35 billion euros total of 2i Rete Gas conducted in July 2014 to refinance the bank debt and which also included another 750 million bond maturing in July 2019.
