A large corporate operation is in the making in the Italian gas system: the Italgas group is in exclusive negotiations to acquire the company 2i Rete Gas (active in 2,226 municipalities with 72 thousand km of network and 4.9 million customers). The CEO of Italgas, Paolo Gallo, tells La Stampa that his group aims to create «a European gas champion. With this operation – explains Gallo – we will achieve a significant step forward in the consolidation of the sector, generating greater efficiency and better quality of service, and also accelerating the energy transition towards net zero emissions”. The top manager argues: “Only in the presence of a European champion, in terms of size and weight, will it be possible to make the important investments necessary for the ecological transition. With too many small-medium operators, however, the time required to achieve climate objectives would be much longer.” And the objections that can be raised by the Antitrust? “We will address the Antitrust issue – Gallo replies – once a binding agreement has been reached”.
The exclusive negotiation takes place with F2i, which owns 63.9% of the shares of 2i Rete Gas, and with the Finavias company which has the rest of the securities (in turn owned by Apg and Ardian). F2i is an infrastructure fund manager with 19 partners including Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (which has 14%) and banking groups such as Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit. And the Cassa, which (moreover) is a 26% shareholder of Italgas, in a letter to its management bodies made it known that «taking into account the strategic nature of the infrastructure and energy sectors, (Cdp Reti) looks favorably on the possibility that the operation may materialize, recognizing its potential industrial value”, and is “available to evaluate forms of support for the implementation of the potential operation, once the information necessary to verify the existence of the conditions for our intervention has been acquired”.
Italgas CEO Paolo Gallo observes that «the reform launched 12 years ago for gas tenders aimed to reorganize the sector, encouraging investments for the development of infrastructure through the consolidation of the sector. But very few competitions actually took place, and no real impulse was seen. 2i Rete Gas is a great opportunity to consolidate the sector and continue along the path of digitalisation of our country’s networks and plants, as we have done on our network. Digital transformation is an enabler of the future because it favors the progressive replacement of gas of fossil origin with renewable gases, generating positive effects in terms of decarbonisation of consumption, security of supply and competitiveness of energy costs for families and businesses. The next frontier will concern Artificial Intelligence, which in the coming months, not years, will guarantee us a new wave of efficiency and cutting costs for network management.”
