Eni Sticks to Disposal Plan After Versalis Sale Falters
Italy's Eni does not intend to change a target of offloading 7 billion euros ($8 billion) in assets by 2019 after talks to sell a majority stake in chemical unit Versalis fell through, a top executive at the oil major said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday the state-controlled major said negotiations with U.S. investment firm SK Capital over Versalis had been called off because of the failure to resolve certain issues.
One Milan analyst had valued Versalis at around 1.5 billion euros.
"There is no impact in the sense we had contingencies," Chief Financial Officer Massimo Mondazzi said on the sidelines of a meeting.
Asked if there could be other asset sales to offset Versalis, Mondazzi said there was no need.
"But if they make sense, we'll do it," he said.
Mondazzi has previously said the group will frontload the disposal programme to sell 5 billion euros of assets in the next two years.
(Reporting by Giancarlo Navach, writing by Stephen Jewkes)
