Italy's rail company Italo-NTV to be sold to US firm

The sale of Italy's private rail company Italo-NTV to US investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) was finalized on Sunday with the signature of the purchase agreement, the firm said on Monday.

The transition would be closed following the necessary clearance from European antitrust authorities, it added.

Last week, the board of directors of Italo-NTV accepted a bid by Global Infrastructure Partners, which overall offered 1.98 billion euros (2.43 billion US dollars) to buy the entire share capital of the Italian company.

The offer allowed current shareholders to reinvest up to 25 percent of the proceeds from the sale in the group, with the same conditions applied to the US fund in the context of the purchase, according to Italo-NTV.

The bid was submitted a few weeks before an initial public offering (IPO) up to 40 percent of capital, which the Italian company had planned to launch on the Milan stock exchange. The plan was discarded after the acceptance of the purchase offer.

Headquartered in Rome, the private rail operator was established in 2012. It runs a high-speed fleet on a route network of 14 cities and 19 stations across Italy, according to the firm's profile.

In 2017, its total revenues increased by 24.8 percent on an annual basis to reach 454.9 million euros, according to financial results unveiled in January. Net profits grew to 33.8 million euros from 32.7 million euros in 2016.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)