Onorato acquires 100% of Tirrenia

Genoa - As of yesterday, Vincenzo Onorato controls almost all ferry routes between Sardinia and the Continent: the owner of the Moby shipping company closed the deal with Clessidra fund and the other minority shareholders to acquire 100% of the former state-owned Tirrenia, a deal worth €100 million. Onorato has until 30 September to finalise the financing agreement with American fund Och-Siff to acquire Tirrenia’s shares held by Clessidra (35%), GIP (Group Port Investments, with 15%) and Shipping Investment (10%), as well as Clessidra’s 32% share of Moby which they have controlled since 2007. Clessidra will receive €80 million in total, and the remaining €20 million will be paid to the minority owners of Tirrenia. CEO and managing director Ettore Morace resigned immediately upon conclusion of the deal; after all he had declared several times in the past that he would not remain at the helm of Tirrenia should the company become controlled completely by Onorato. “I spent four intense years [at Tirrenia],” said Morace, “and there were those who gave us up for dead before we even started, however we managed to straighten the ship and bring it safely into port.”

Last night Tirrenia’s new Board of Directors was appointed, with the Sardinian Massimo Mura (Moby’s cargo business manager) as the new CEO and Peter Manunta, also a Sardinian and Onorato’s friend and racing partner on ‘Mascalzone Latino’, as President. Together with the summer services offered by Gnv and Sardinia Ferries, Onorato now controls almost all the Sardinian routes (Tirrenia’s routes are subsidized with €72 million a year to cover losses from winter services while maintaining territorial continuity), as well as those of Toremar on the Tuscan Archipelago with a fleet of 15 tug boats based in Cagliari. Tirrenia employs 1,000 people and owns 18 ships, while Moby employs 750 people and owns 16 ships. The new owner, however, has taken responsibility for debts of over half a billion euros: to the €100 million spend of this acquisition must be added the €240 million of debt inherited from Tirrenia, plus €260 to €280 million of Moby’s debts. The take-over can only be a disappointment for the Genoese partner company GIP: Luigi Negri, the head of the company, also a Sardinian, opposed the deal for about a year, but the ‘yes’ from Clessidra and from Shipping Investment (owned by Francesco Izzo, former vice president of Neapolitan Industrials) determined the outcome: “With only my 15% in the company I could do very little.

Financially the operation went well, because GIP has grossed nearly double its entry investment, but the goals were different. Now everything is in the hands of Onorato, and I do not know how well he’ll be sleeping at night with that debt on his shoulders. However, I’m sure he’ll be successful, especially if he can maintain Tirrenia as shaped by Morace, able to create good EBITDA, profits and savings.” The unions are waiting: “We decided to privatize the links with the islands,” said Mauro Scognamillo, Fit-Cisl, “and this is now a private deal. We will ask for a meeting as soon as possible to understand the intentions of the new company.” With the merging of the two fleets, formed by the new company, the two-year social clause should be reactivated, according to which employment levels of the former state company are guaranteed. Onorato’s company might not be a monopoly on paper, but the new deal is already creating concerns in Sardinia, where Tirrenia has always been poorly managed, both by public and private administration: Massimo Deiana, Regional Transport Minister, has already filed a complaint with the Antitrust Authority but it was submitted too late according to the deputy of Unidos, Mauro Pili, the first to announce the acquisition yesterday morning, while Onorato and former partners were still with the notary in Milan. The Authority now has a month to give its assessment regarding the effects of the transaction on the markets concerned. According to law, the Antitrust Authority at the end of the 30 days may authorize the transaction as it stands or with conditions, or prohibit the acquisition.