Italo buys Itabus to combine the train and bus service

Italo buys Itabus, the long-distance bus company, thus combining its high-speed train network with road transport.

The board of directors of Italo – Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori chaired by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.

Itabus has been operational since May 2021: it connects Italy, including Sicily, with 100 MAN buses (Volkswagen group) and, “after just two years of activity, despite the restrictions of the pandemic period, it has already exceeded 2 million travellers”. According to press rumors, the turnover would be 30 million.

There is a common thread between the two companies regarding shareholders and management. Italo is controlled by the US infrastructure fund Gipwhile in the shareholding structure of Itabus there are Flavio Cattaneo, the Cordero di Montezemolo family, the Punzo family and Isabella Seragnoli. Montezemolo and Punzo were among the founders of Italo (with Della Valle and Sciarrone), While Flavio Cattaneo, which has 30% of the shares of Itabus, was the CEO between 2015 and 2016 of the trains that launched the competition to the Frecciarossa. He then reinvested with the other Italian shareholders when Gip, in 2018, took over more than 70% of Italo.

Today’s note recalls that “with the birth of Itabus, a quality service was introduced in Italy in the rubber sector, with latest generation buses equipped with free 4/5G wi-fi, toilets and vending machines for snacks and drinks. double-decker (74 seats each) with 2 travel environments (Comfort+ and Top). Both day and night services connect large cities, infrastructure hubs such as airports, stations and ports, but also small towns and villages with a strong tourist vocation. – Itabus will create a group capable of developing an efficient integrated mobility service which, thanks to the synergies that will be achieved, will increase the coverage perimeter of the entire national territory, including the south: Sicily, Puglia and Campania will be the first three regions starting and will become the model of this interconnection and its advantages for travellers”.

Cattaneo, who in the meantime has been indicated by the Treasury as managing director of Enel, leaves all the responsibilities in Italy to the president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, remains a shareholder of the company and non-executive vice president. Itabus, which from today becomes part of the group, will continue to be led by the two managing directors Francesco Fiore and Enrico Zampone, while the president will become Gianbattista La Rocca, managing director of Italo.

Details of the deal were not disclosed. In the background there is also the game for the future of Italo’s own shareholding structure, for which the MSC of Aponte was also involved. In recent months there had been talk of the valorisation of the participation by the Gip, with the interest of international funds for the dossier. A dossier which at this point is enriched, also in terms of valorisation, by the presence of Itabus.