Tirrenia fleet puts up a ring

Genoa - The brawl on board Tirrenia continues. Yet another battle was triggered, in the war for the control of the formerly State owned ferry company, this time by Vincenzo Onorato, President of Moby and majority shareholder of CIN, the company that had taken over Tirrenia following its privatization. Yesterday, the ship-owner bought a full page in the Financial Times to criticize the partners and the business plan which bears the signature of Ettore Morace, the CEO of the company. “Tirrenia has not achieved the economic targets agreed by all its members and the creditor banks. The company demanded the change of the agreement with the State so as to improve its finances, by cutting the links to the South of Sardinia, among others”. So, Onorato is asking the state to cancel its agreement with the company (a contract worth €72 million) because of its reduction in routes. It is a frontal attack to Morace’s business plan, but the minority shareholders of CIN are defending it: “we are obtaining better performance thanks to the new plan” the company responded yesterday, in a press release. Answers from the other partners did not take long to reach Onorato. Luigi Negri was the first to counter yesterday: “I can’t stand those who present themselves as the absolute good while branding us as the villains,” he declared to Secolo XIX/The Medi Telegraph. “We have a small company [ed. Blu Navy] that connects Porto Ferraio to Piombino 5 times a day, but only during the summer.” “ Over at Moby, Onorato has replaced Toremar to offer 40 departure times on that same route,” explains the Genoese entrepreneur. “The prices are very similar to ours during the summer when we are there to compete . But during the winter, when Toremar and Moby run the monopoly on the route, rates can go up as much as 100% for trucks, for example”. Negri, following the same reasoning goes on to talk about Tirrenia: “Imagine if we had allowed Onorato to gain control of the company: he would have got 90% of all offered links to Sardinia”. Negri is making reference to the attempted merger of Tirrenia with Moby, which was blocked by the antitrust authority. Instead, Onorato blames it all on his partner’s change of strategy, the Clessidra fund led by Claudio Esposito. At first, he had approved the operation, but later on “the agreements signed with a smile were not honoured” and Tirrenia “soon became Moby’s worst enemy.” So Onorato is now attacking the fund, which however refutes all accusations and replies:“we reserve the right to bring a suit against Mr. Onorato (and all companies he represents) to protect our images against eventual damages”. One of the issues that partners have been quarrelling about for a long time is the composition of the stockholder roster. Right now, partners have the following stakes: CIN (Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione) owns 100% of Tirrenia. CIN is owned by: Onorato, who owns 40%, the Clessidra Fund of Claudio Esposito (35%), the Gruppo Investimenti Portuali (Gip) led by Luigi Negri (15%) and Shipping Investments, owned by the Neapolitan entrepreneur Francesco Izzo, with 10%. In June, the minority partners had blocked Onorato’s ‘march’ to prevent him taking over more than 50%, effectively putting an end to the merger between Moby and Tirrenia. Subsequently, this unleashed a war of appeals. In May, Clessidra turned to the Arbitration Tribunal in Milan to assert its rights, while Onorato followed suit and did the same in June. Right now, since the purchase options were not exercised, the stock is still up for sale. It is no secret that Onorato is looking for new partners (or perhaps one should say allies) to regain control of the company where he holds a majority stake, but remains in a perpetual brawl.