Overcoming fragmentation
The judge’s decision unlocks the discussion on the birth of an industrial entity in Tuscany.
According to the project, the Tuscan municipalities and the other shareholders will have a direct stake in the newco (the name still to be defined), a holding company that will be 100% public, which will control Publiacqua, Alia and Estra, thus consolidating the waste business. , water and energy. The participation of the Sienese and the expansion of the business area to Acque Spa in the lower Valdarno are also being studied.
Tuscany has a good quality of local public services. However, unlike the large groupings in Upper Italy – this is the case, for example, of A2A, Hera, Iren – Tuscan utilities tend to have only one business segment, a modest investment capacity, undercapitalization and a marked propensity for fragmentation. local that characterizes the lively history of Tuscany.
Old and new members
The project of the three reference Municipalities, to which other areas are joining, sees an industrial plan whose growth must be financed through the Stock Exchange and with recourse to the capital market. The project would like to favor among the shareholders the active participation of the customers themselves, citizens of the municipalities involved, but the role of any industrial partners as could be the current private partners of Publiacqua should not be excluded.
The utility of Central Italy
There are no foreclosures either on new business segments or from the point of view of the territory: in addition to the current configuration (turnover of around 1.4 billion), in the future other companies in the region may join (the whole of Tuscany could represent a turnover of around 3 billion) or neighboring regions such as Umbria and Marche (estimated turnover of around 4 billion), so that local public service companies in Central Italy are no longer a land of conquest and take an active role .