The great maneuvers on the Cagliari airport

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The blitz

Everything as before, apparently. Except for one heavy modification. The penultimate update, pro forma, was that of June 16, 2020. The shareholders are enclosed in a file: the Chamber of Commerce of Cagliari dominates with 94.353% of shares, followed by Sfirs, the regional financial company, with 3.430% , Banco di Sardegna with 1.052% and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia with 0.720%. Among the apparent trifles, however, a historical brand disappears from the corporate structure: the 0.20% held by the princely and disused company Alisarda, in the shareholders list of the Chamber of Commerce, is no longer there, or rather disappears from the registers. However, until a few days ago, as can be seen in the photo, it was in the foreground among the shareholders, listed one by one, on the official website of Sogaer.

Air shopping

For a few nights, however, the Alisarda company, even for the official website, has no longer been the owner of that microscopic 0.20%. It is the confirmation of the operation. For the Chamber of Commerce of Cagliari, in fact, there has been a change and it is substantial: there is a new partner, powerful, used to "buying" airports around Sardinia and beyond. The documents that we publish in the central photo are clear proof that the operation on the flying chessboard of southern Sardinia has started.

The landing of F2i

For the first time, in fact, one of the most powerful financial funds in Italy, F2i, joins the company. It is not a question, as can be understood, of a fact limited to that modest 0.20%. The entry of this new shareholder is considered by all the most attentive observers not only a modest share inherited from the purchase by F2i of the Olbia airport management company. Behind that tiny 0.20%, value of just 27,154 euros, on the entire share capital of 13 million of Sogaer, lurks a real financial giant that already since 2010, with an official but non-binding offer, had tried to cling to the Cagliari port, without succeeding.

Try again

This time, however, the financial fund seems to have placed itself in a strategic position to attempt the climb that had not been denied at other times. And that the attack plan has been drawn up is shown by the corporate "vector" with which F2i is doing the shopping operations in Sardinia. In fact, this time in Milan, an offshoot of the main holding was registered at the Chamber of Commerce, a company with a vaguely Latin name, F2i Ligantia . A team created to acquire from the Region, with a highly contested operation, a significant and majority share of the Alghero airport. Now, however, that team with a Milanese plate, with the residence a stone's throw from the Duomo, at number one in the central via San Prospero, has three "only" participations "in its belly" (as you can see in the document on the right of the photo) . As it happens, all Sardinian companies, all three airports. A corporate castle entirely attributable to the parent company F2i, which turns out to be the main shareholder of F2i Ligantia, with 78.97% together with 15% of another fund, the Global Infrastructure.

The hat-trick

The picture, also graphic, of the company is eloquent: all three Sardinian airports, the gateway to Sardinia, are part of the overall picture of the Milanese company that aims to manage the entire Sardinian airport system, with different shares. . First he climbed the Riviera del Corallo airport, registering the absolute majority with 71.24% of shares, then he pocketed 79.79% of the Olbia airport with the company F2i Smeralda and since the end of July he has 0.20% of the Cagliari airport is registered. It is evident, even to the layman, that a colossus of this magnitude will not remain idle. It is obvious that he will try every possible way to bring under his own wings even the last of the airports left "free" in the aerial scenario of the island. The goal of submitting all Sardinian airports to a Milanese monopoly is anything but a simple desire. And F2i, after all, knows the mechanics of climbing better than anyone else.

The losses to be covered

Starting from the shortest possible way, that of the capital increase. Cagliari airport, in fact, went from 5 million and 29 thousand euros in profit in 2019 to a minus 2 million 389 thousand euros. A net and dry loss from Covid that will have to be covered. The European Union has already made it known that public grants to heal the losses of an airport managed by a private individual will not have an easy time.

Not pimples

And, after all, it is not a question of bruscolini. For this reason, it will soon be necessary to decide which path to pursue to heal the post-pandemic financial vulnerability. Financial analysts know that one of the hypotheses is that of a capital increase. In this case, it will have to be assessed whether the increase in capital will be limited to losses, two million and 389 thousand euros, or whether it will be daring to cover even the lost profit. In both cases, not everyone will have the cash to accept the capital increase. Only a subject, the one who has just entered with one of the lowest shares, will be able to contribute, without limits, to the possible recapitalization of the airport company.

Check mate

F2i, in fact, could checkmate, applying, as a subject with pre-emption right, as holder of 0.20%, to write off all or part of those seven million missed in 2020 alone. In practice, being the share capital of the company of 13 million, with a financial coverage equal to the losses, however not mandatory, the takeover of the majority of the airport would be done. With a little money the door of the Sardinian house would be in their hands. Much more than a utopian and imaginative scenario. Certainly there are the first official and documented moves. The major maneuvers around Cagliari airport have begun, just as the holding hypothesis opens up a scenario not to be discarded, bringing together all the privatized Sardinian airports, with some public appearances. Behind the scenes, but not too much, well-connected women, power-worn men and well-informed entrepreneurs are agitating. There is a lot of business on the scene, in heaven and on earth, but this is another chapter.

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