The key points
- Where the negotiating table jumped
- The shadow of the golden power
- The spin off will continue
Distant evaluations, difficulties in defining the perimeter of the operation, the increasingly long and threatening shadow of the golden power. For weeks on the table between CNH Industrial and the Chinese of Faw for the sale of Iveco there was a bad air, but now it has arrived – confirming an indiscretion from Bloomberg – the official: Iveco trucks and vans will not end up in Chinese hands. This news was welcomed with relief by politics and the trade unions, and which also received the positive reaction of the French Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, sensitive to the issue since CNH also controls the transalpine bus manufacturer Heuliez.
Where did the negotiating table jump?
The Faw group, which in Italy has other ambitious projects in the Emilian motor valley, had for years expressed interest in the Iveco dossier, and with it for the large engines of Fiat Powertrain Industrial. At the end of 2020 the talks had intensified, and according to what has been gathered by The sun 24 hours, still in February inside the company there was a perceived possibility that the operation would be successful. Initial valuation, a figure in the order of 3.5 billion dollars, to which something should have been added or removed depending on the definitive perimeter of the assets being sold. For example, it was agreed to parade the subsidiary Iveco Defense, based in Bolzano, particularly sensitive from a military and therefore political point of view; and also the share of Nikola, the US company specializing in electric and hydrogen trucks that CNH owns through Iveco.
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A multi-level negotiation in which, according to what is learned, the two parties would have found themselves less and less aligned. To which in the weeks the alarms of the trade unions and politics had been added, ready to evaluate the use of golden power. Prime Minister Mario Draghi himself on 8 April expressly recalled the need to increase public protection over Italian activities.
The role of politics
An informal pressing that in recent days, according to sources close to the government, has intensified on CNH and the shareholder Exor, whose president John Elkann on Tuesday was met by Draghi with the leaders of the large industrial groups. The Minister for Economic Development, Giancarlo Giorgetti, also strengthened the pressure: “We welcome and positively evaluate the news of the failure to complete the negotiation,” commented yesterday. Explaining that “the Italian government has followed the whole affair with attention and active discretion because it considers the production of heavy vehicles by road of national strategic interest”. Who speaks of “good news”, on Twitter, is Minister Le Maire: “This operation has raised important issues of industrial sovereignty. With Giancarlo Giorgetti, we are working together to maintain our industrial capabilities in Europe, France and Italy ».
The next steps
Once this page is closed, “Mise is ready to sit down at the table to intervene to protect and maintain this production in Italy”, assures Giorgetti. The trade unions immediately took the ball, with Michele De Palma, Fiom-Cgil national secretary, who asked for «the urgent convocation at the Ministry to give employment prospects through the implementation of the industrial plan based on technological innovation».