ROME: Italy offered 540 million shares, or a 5.74 percent stake, to institutional investors, the Treasury said in an e-mailed statement.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is looking to sell assets as the country grapples with debt of over 2 trillion euros. The government plans to sell stakes in state-owned companies worth about 0.7 percent of gross domestic product a year between 2015 and 2017. Italy’s Economy Ministry now owns a 25.5 percent stake in Enel after the sale.
Italy plans to sell 40 per of postal service Poste Italiane SpA and 49 percent of air-traffic controller Enav SpA this year. It also wants to dispose of 40 percent of the state railways, Ferrovie dello Stato, by next year. The European commission on Wednesday decided not to open excessive-deficit procedures on Italy and Belgium because of their debt levels.
