From Alitalia to the former Ilva: this is why CDP cannot intervene

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To understand if Cdp will return to the field on the former Ilva, after the announcement of ArcelorMittal, it would perhaps be enough to start from its statute (article 3) which establishes very stringent stakes with respect to an intervention by the group led by Fabrizio Palermo, where, in defining the the social object of the Via Goito spa, the assumption, even indirectly, of participation in the "stable situation of financial, equity and economic balance" of the companies involved and "the appropriate prospects of profitability" is constrained.

The role of Cassa in the consortium led by Jindal
One way to say that the entry into the game, evoked by the leader of Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi, without Cassa being informed of the initiative, is not on the agenda. And to those who object that the group had already intervened, in 2017, in the framework of the AcciaItalia consortium exited defeated in the procedure with ArcelorMittal and led by the Indians of Jindal – of which they were part, in addition to the Cassa, which had a share of 40% and the role of «Anchor investor», also Arvedi and Del Vecchio – remember that that axis, as well as the conditions of the investment are no longer there. And that also the prospects for relaunching the Taranto steel plant appear extremely compromised even in light of the dispute underway with the government.

In other words, enough to exclude that Cassa could intervene at the moment to save the already strongly compromised fate of the former Ilva, whose situation, as mentioned, appears incompatible with the constraints dictated by the statute. The same people who have prevented Cdp, invoked over the years by many parties as a white knight, to rush to the rescue of companies in great difficulty, starting from Alitalia where often the name of the Cassa has been contemplated as a possible solution to all ills.

The statutory constraints and the niet to the mere bailouts
But the various managers who have come to the leadership of CDP, from Palermo to Gaul to Giovanni Gorno Tempini, just returned to Via Goito as president wanted by the banking foundations, minority shareholders, have always opposed a clear "niet". The same that the Cdp has also pronounced with respect to the construction dossier, where, it is worth remembering, the intervention alongside Salini Impregilo and the banks was authorized only with a view to Consolidation of the sector and not of single rescue (in the case of the Roman general contractor Astaldi).

And the same objection has also been raised recently on the issue of bankruptcy Veneto banks. Also in that case, the Cassa subordinated its descent into the field to a wide-ranging operation, reminding those who asked for the intervention of the limits set by its statute. That would trigger the immediate red card in Brussels where its market unit nature was sacrificed on the altar of a mere rescue.