MSC focuses on Italo’s high speed and deals with the Gip fund

Once the Ita operation has been filed, MSC has targeted the Italo fast trains that the Global Infrastructure Partners fund has put on the market. The indiscretion comes from Bloomberg according to which the maritime colossus of the Aponte family, active both in the cruise ship sector and on the container front, would be in exclusive negotiation with Gip.

On the other hand, the fund took over Ntv in 2018 with an investment of 2 billion euros and a time horizon of about 5 years, thanks to Covid and the crisis, times have lengthened, but Gip would have entered the idea to monetize the railway company. Provided we find an investor ready to value it in the order of 4 billion euros.

Last year the Aponte group entered into a consortium with Lufthansa to take over Ita Airways from the Mef, but the prolongation of the negotiations and the exclusivity granted by the Draghi government to Certarer at the end of August 2022 had convinced MSC to withdraw from the game. Lufthansa closed the operation of Ita with the entry in the capital of the company at 41%; the naval group once again sets its sights on transport, also betting on the synergies that could be created.

In recent years, the Aponte family has taken over the transport and logistics activities of the Bollorè group in Africa and has invested in the Italian ferry company Moby.

Italo made its debut in Italy in 2012 challenging Trenitalia’s high-speed trains with a fleet of 51 trains that connect the main cities of the country from Turin to Naples, from Rome to Milan and Verona.