Italy approves Italgas' 2i Rete gas deal with conditions
The Italian antitrust authority has approved conditionally the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas, Europe's largest gas distributor, by Italgas, a domestic competitor, on Tuesday.
Italgas has agreed to purchase 2i Rete gas for 5.3 billion euro ($5.8 billion), a major step in consolidating the gas distribution sector in Italy.
Italgas was asked by the antitrust agency to take several measures, including selling a part of its Italian gas distribution business, which would represent 600,000 clients out of a total 12.3 million customers that the combined entity of 2i Rete Gas could have served in its own country.
The group must complete the disposal before the end of 2025.
Ascopiave, one of the Italian gas companies, has said that they are interested in purchasing customers from Italgas to satisfy antitrust requests.
In a separate announcement, the company stated that "Italgas plans to close the transaction before the end of first quarter".
Italgas announced that the group led by Paolo Gallo, chief executive of 2i Rete gas, will begin integrating 2i Rete in the second quarter. This will be ahead of schedule and will allow Italgas to begin rolling out planned investments worth 15.6 billion euro under its strategic plan 2024-2030.
In the months to come, both gas distribution groups will prioritize the integration of corporate and information systems as well as the digitalisation of their network, and other measures that can lead to initial synergies. The two groups will also begin large-scale implementations of artificial intelligence. The dollar is worth 0.9189 euro (reporting by Francesca Landini, Cristina Carlevaro; editing by Gianluca Smeraro and Keith Weir).
(source: Reuters)
