THE CASE Lhe crisis in Egea, more than 5 percent owned by the Municipality of Alba, as well as by a hundred other Municipalities, is shaking things up. On the multiutility Albese, 60 percent in the hands of the Carini family, it seems that several companies have set their sights: the top management of Egea themselves formalized the open discussion with A2A, a Lombard multi-service company listed on the stock exchange, during the third council commission.
Marco Meo, managing director of Egea commerciali, hypothesized the entry of A2A into the shareholding structure of the Alba group. A choice to strengthen the company, struggling with heavy bank debt, caused by skyrocketing energy prices in recent months. Meo also spoke, among the solutions adopted, of a loan with a simplified procedure for an amount of 70 million euros, set up by a pool of banks over the long term. In addition to Bpm and Unicredit, local credit institutions are also involved, starting with Banca d’Alba.
On the front of the search for the new shareholder, however, the negotiation is open, without exclusives: it seems that also the Turin-based Iren, which a year ago had come forward to acquire commercial Egea – as was said – is determined to get back into the game. Last week, another subject emerged: eViso, a digital company with an artificial intelligence infrastructure specialized in the supply of electricity and gas, which pays particular attention to the world of small and medium-sized enterprises. In this case, they would be playing almost at home, since it is an innovative reality founded in 2012 in Saluzzo, which has won multiple awards at a national level for the growth rate recorded in the space of a few years.
But if up to now our eyes have been focused on the commercial part of the Alba multiservice, which sells energy and takes care of the customer package, we should not forget Reti metano territory Srl, with headquarters in via Vivaro, which distributes gas in the Municipalities of Langhe and Roero and in Lombardy. It is the company that deals with the management of the distribution infrastructure, at the service of the sales company and consequently of the end customers. From a survey carried out at the Chamber of Commerce of Cuneo at the beginning of last week, it emerges that as of 28 January 2022 the share capital exceeded 20 million, with 51 per cent of the property in the hands of Egea and 49 per cent in Lime Energia, active in Perugia. On the same date, both parties were pledged to Intesa Sanpaolo, evidently to guarantee a loan.
We asked Egea for explanations: Lime would be none other than the operating arm of Icon infrastructure, which already bought the shares in question in 2017. It is a fund of private equity British, which has been talked about a lot in Piedmont in recent months, since it would be close to the acquisition of the ski resorts of Sestrière. According to the answers to us forAccording to the Egea communication, the pledge to Intesa would be a guarantee to obtain the necessary financing for investments in the network “in a normal industrial logic, which is repaid year after year”.
What does the policy say? If the centreosinistra does not mince words, raising serious concerns, in light of the entry into Egea of a large group as majority shareholder and the consequences that the operation could have on the company’s 1,800 employees, Mayor Carlo Bo maintains a cautious attitude: «I think that the situationtion has taken a positive turn, because there is no shortage of offers. As far as we are concerned, we can only maintain a neutral attitude for now, waiting to evaluate documents and industrial plans, so as to protect our position as a Municipality, as well as the workers: we are discussing with Egea and with the managing director Pier Paolo Carini, to monitor the progress of the negotiations».
In the Province, on the other hand, efforts are being made to clarify the issue of integrated water cycle management, which involves the multiservice through Egea acque. If the company presented the last appeal against the transfer to the public operator Cogesi to the Supreme Court months ago, the entry of a new shareholder agitates the unresolved and intricate issue even more.
Francesca Pinaffo
From the crisis to the energy autonomy of the province
Roberto Cavallo, CEO of the Erica cooperative and former Alba environmental councilor, also takes a position on the topic of the Egea crisis.
I took my first steps in the corridors of the Municipality of Alba: it was the autumn of 1997 and one of the first folders, swollen with hundreds of sheets, that I found myself reading bore the suggestive title “Advertising Egea”. I read it avidly and still keep it in my archive. It was a moment of extraordinary political wealth of the city, thanks to the strategic vision and passion of the councilor Gianni Arbocco and of the team that first accompanied the analysis phase and then the grounding.
A thousand anecdotes overlap in my mind, but the unanimous resolution of the entry of public capital into the Egea structure represents, in my opinion, one of the highest moments of my administrative experience. Not so much and only for the result, but above all for the path taken to achieve it. For this I now propose a repolitical downturn. While I understand the statements made in recent days by the mayor and the majority representatives, aimed at keeping a certain distance from the entrepreneurial choices that the owners will want to make, I believe that Alba is called to play a central role in the Aegean crisis.
The role that Alba can and must play is not linked to the shares it owns within the company structure, but it is a role of strategic direction: the one that commissioner Arbocco assumed, supported by mayor Enzo Demaria, 25 years ago. Just in the name of that albesità recently referred to in greeting the late Demaria, the city must be able to find a political union of purpose and then, thanks to this, draw the territory and the partner Municipalities around it, as well as to the great entrepreneurship of Alba and Cuneo.
If it is true that, as mayor Carlo Bo stated, Egea represents “a small reality” in the world of energy, it is equally realistic to state that the entrepreneurial fabric and the community of Alba and Cuneo, rather than questioning where to buy energy – whether in Milan or Reggio Emilia, Lyon or Paris – can think of producing it itself.
Crises are a great opportunity and for this I launch a heartfelt warning: let’s take advantage of this opportunity! We field the best minds of our province, the most appropriate techniques and policies and we outline a program of renewable energy production that starts from the reservoirs of the valleys, passes through the windiest ridges, lands on the roofs of sheds or greenhouses, aims at exploit farm residues or clean up forests. With serious planning we will be able to make the Cuneo area energetically autonomous, by doing it with a local company. The same thing can be thought of for the waste cycle and other local public services.
Other companies, in times of crisis, have been able to recover thanks to the territory itself: let’s give it a try!
