Tag: Italy

The government plans to cut its direct and indirect stake in the Italian post office Poste Italiane SpA to 51 pct through a private placement and an initial public offering, the daily Finanza & Mercati said. The post office is currently owned by the economy ministry and the state-owned financial group Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. According to the daily, the economy ministry intends to keep a 30 pct stake in the post office and cut CDP’s stake to 21 pct from 35 pct. In a private placement, the government could sell part of Poste Italiane to banks and banking foundations, the newspaper said.

Poste Italiane, the Italian Post Offices, “aware of the government’s politics as to the buying power,” is offering a new on-line payment service for vehicle taxes without any supplement commission, until the end of the year. Poste Italiane is also engaged in maintaining the prices of all services unchanged, says an annotation from Poste Italiane with reference to the news appeared in the press.

The merchant bank Mediobanca SpA is interested in buying a significant stake in the state-owned post office, Poste SpA, the newspaper La Repubblica said citing financial sources. However, the government still has to decide whether and how to privatise the post office, which is 65 pct owned by the economy ministry and 35 pct by the government-owned financial group Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. The government is studying the option of selling part of the ministry’s shares in Poste in a global offering, or breaking up the company into two, one entity containing the post office business and the other the banking operations of Bancoposta.