Italy’s Atlantia lifts 2022 guidance, prepares for new CEO

By Francesco Zecchini

MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s Atlantia, whose controlling investor aims to take it private with the help of Blackstone, improved its 2022 guidance and said its CEO would leave by the end of the year, once the group is delisted.

The exit of current CEO Carlo Bertazzo and the completion of the takeover promoted by the Benetton family and Blackstone will mark a new phase for Atlantia, which risked going bust following the 2018 collapse of a motorway bridge it ran.

Under the agreement approved on Thursday, Bertazzo will receive around 3 million euros ($3.07 million) in severance. After his exit, he will also receive 1.5 million euros to be paid in 18 monthly installments as a non-compete deal, the company said in a statement.

Benetton-controlled Atlantia, which has activities spanning from Italy to Spain and South America, also said it posted a 18% year-on-year rise in revenue to 3.3 billion euros ($3.38 billion) in the first half of 2022 driven by a recovery in airport and motorway traffic.

As a result, the group expects consolidated 2022 revenue to total around 6.8 billion euros in 2022, improving a previous guidance of 6.6 billion euros.

Net debt stood at 21.2 billion euros, down by 8.8 billion euros from last December thanks to the completion of the sale of the company’s unit Autostrade per l’Italia.

Autostrade was sold in May to a consortium which includes state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) and investment funds Blackstone and Macquarie.

($1 = 0.9765 euros)

(Reporting by Francesco Zecchini; Editing by Keith Weir and Daniel Wallis)