Cagliari Airport to be privatized, amid concerns about the "financial soundness of the operation."
This is what we read in the report by the regional advisor dedicated to evaluating the change of ownership of the airport from an economic and patrimonial point of view: today the Mameli is a publicly managed structurePer restare aggiornato entra nel nostro canale Whatsapp
"The reasons given by the Chamber of Commerce of Cagliari and Oristano (Cciaa) remain anchored to programmatic estimates and are not sufficient to comprehensively and reliably support the legitimacy and appropriateness of the management choice made ." This is one of the passages in which the Region's advisor, the Milan-based Lca firm, expresses doubts about the Chamber of Commerce's operation, namely the privatization of the capital's airport , of which the institution holds a 94.45% stake through the management company Sogaer.
The reliefs
According to the agreements signed on October 5, 2023, F2i Ligantia, the investment fund that is already the majority shareholder in Olbia and Alghero , will take over the airport. Cagliari's Mameli Airport, however, is still a non-private airport, given that the Chamber of Commerce is a public (not economic) entity. The Chamber of Commerce, however, wants to sell it to acquire a 40.5% stake in the holding company for the sole management led by F2i Ligantia. However, the operation is based "on forecasts and unpredictable hypotheses that are not sufficiently well-founded to demonstrate its actual financial sustainability ," wrote LCA, which the Todde administration commissioned to conduct a "specialist study" to obtain a third-party opinion.
The position
The advisor's doubts are not new. Milan experts express skepticism regarding the economic, financial, and equity aspects of the operation, aligning themselves with the Court of Auditors' opinion, dated 2023 and signed by the panel chaired by Antonio Contu. "The evaluations" supporting the privatization "are incomplete and lacking in solidity , as they are based on long-term projections (up to 2030) and not always supported by plans approved by the boards of directors of the companies involved." In the six files submitted to the Region—hundreds of pages accompanied by graphs and tables—the advisor has already expressed doubts about the lack of "public interest" in the operation, and even the economic estimates of the airports ( Olbia airport is valued at two and a half times that of Cagliari's Mameli airport ) have not been convincing. The Todde administration wants to enter the future single management company by spending €30 million to acquire a 9.25% stake. F2i Ligantia would have 40.25%, the Chamber of Commerce 40.5%.