Infrastructure group Atlantia aims to expand in struggling airport sector
Company also intends to offload Italian toll road arm at centre of Genoa bridge collapse
Infrastructure group Atlantia is aiming to expand further into the European airport sector as it accelerates plans to sell its main asset, Italy’s toll road operator at the centre of the Genoa bridge disaster.
Chief executive Carlo Bertazzo plans to swoop for cheap airport assets with many European hubs expected to face a tough 2021 as the pandemic bites harder.
At the same time, he wants to finally offload Autostrade per l’Italia, its subsidiary responsible for the maintenance of the Genoa bridge, which collapsed two years ago and caused the deaths of 43 people.
Atlantia has come under pressure to sell Autostrade after a running dispute with the Italian government over the bridge, which represents more than 50 per cent of the toll group’s portfolio.
“Many airports in Europe will need to raise capital next year as, unlike airlines, they aren’t receiving enough government subsidies, but they continue to have very high fixed costs in terms of staff and infrastructure,” Mr Bertazzo said in an interview with the Financial Times.
“I can see Atlantia’s [airport business] playing an active role,” he added.
Atlantia already has a strong foothold in the European airport sector, owning Aeroporti di Roma that operates Rome’s two main airports, Fiumicino and Ciampino, and a 65 per cent stake in the operator of the French airports at Nice, Cannes and St Tropez.
A sale of Autostrade would help Mr Bertazzo, appointed in January after the forced resignation of Giovanni Castellucci after the Genoa bridge tragedy, turn a new chapter and refocus the group on its airport business.
“Aeroporti di Roma specialises in leisure travel, and this will be a characteristic of strength in a post-pandemic world as tourism will recover faster than business travel which might be reduced forever,” Mr Bertazzo said.
The company is not in talks with any other airport operator at this stage but “I can think of a few European airports we could create synergies with . . . geographic continuity and the tourism focus are key,” he added.
Mr Bertazzo highlighted important fundraisings in the capital markets for Atlantia, which owns a 50 per cent-plus one share stake in Abertis, the Spanish multinational that operates toll roads and car parks in the Iberian peninsula and France.
Autostrade raised €1.25bn through a bond offering in early December in an important deal given that the company had been struggling to access the markets this year after downgrades of its credit rating in January because of the Morandi bridge fallout.
Aeroporti di Roma also launched a €300m green bond in November.
“These were important milestones for us this year,” said Mr Bertazzo.
“We kicked off 2020 with a downgrade due to a change in the Italian toll road concession regulation, so we knew it was going to be a tough year for us, even before the pandemic.”
He added: “Since becoming CEO I changed 80 per cent of the group’s executives, and there’s now a clear separation between roles. You can go very far and fast only if you have the right people in terms of skills and values.
“We’re obviously suffering from a reputation issue. Solving it is a long-term project but we have a strategy and we’re on the right track now.”