Privatization means transferring an industrial, economic activity or a monopoly (as happened in the past for example with telephones) from the public sector to private capital. The public hand does not necessarily have to continue to control sectors of our economy, with the exception of those that are of strategic interest for the country such as energy or defence, on the contrary; but for one reason or another this practice has been abandoned for years. Are there no more jewels to sell? In part yes, but in part the process is held back by the lack of political will, by the interest in maintaining (also for reasons of power) control of many companies.
The idea of putting another share of Eni on the market, firmly in the hands of the State through Cassa Depositi, cannot therefore be defined as a privatization but simply a cash-raising operation. Which, however, from an accounting point of view, is not so convenient for the Treasury which, according to the latest indiscretions, would be a candidate to put on the market practically almost the entire share that it still holds directly in the six-legged dog group.
The value of an operation of this kind, if anything, is political and image-related. It is a message aimed at the markets and Brussels: it signals Italy’s desire to reduce (even if slightly) the public debt which continues to be the country’s real drag.
The proceeds from privatizations or the sale of shares in public companies, by law, have an exclusive destination: debt reduction.
But if we weigh the pros and cons of the operation that the MEF is studying, we see that the strictly accounting results would advise the Treasury against getting rid of the package of Eni shares, which has always been considered a goose that lays golden eggs. In 2023, in fact, in light of the certainly very brilliant results recorded by the group led by Claudio De Scalzi, the Mef for the 4.7% of Eni shares it has in its portfolio has in fact collected 148 million euros in dividends, or 0, 94 euros for each of the 157 million Eni shares he holds. Reducing the stock of public debt by 2 billion euros (which in November 2023 amounted to 2,855 billion) is not much, in fact it represents an infinitesimal portion, but above all it reduces its burden by an amount much lower than what is collected through dividends on the same package of shares: 4% of Eni, in fact, last year produced around 125 million euros in proceeds compared to the 94 million foreseeable debt burden which would be reduced through the placement of these securities on the market, given that the investment banks attribute a yield of 4.7% to the Italian BTP this year.