The change in the global leadership of Enel could leave the exit of Edesur that the Italian group had announced on hold
By Antonio Rossi
29/04/2023 – 13,20hs
The change in the conduct of the global structure of the Italian group Enel which is on track to materialize in mid-May could imply a waiting period in the process of selling the majority shares of Edesurthe electrical distributor of the metropolitan region that was targeted by the repeated and prolonged power outages recorded during the summer.
In November of last year, the authorities of Enel—the main shareholder of the controlling company of Edesur—announced his departure from the country with the sale of all its energy assets in the electricity generation, transmission and distribution businesses.
According to Enel executives, The withdrawal from the local level is part of a new business and commercial plan that consists of getting rid of all the companies it controls in “non-strategic countries and markets” in order to reduce the debt accumulated in recent years, which exceeds 24,000 million euros.
This “road map”, in the case of Argentina, was ratified at the beginning of this year when the international CEO of Enel, Francesco Staracestated that the decision to pack is due to the fact that the country “has the most bizarre regulation in the world”.
The first step of withdrawal of Enel was finalized last February with the double sale of the Dock Sud and Costanera thermal power plants. A month later, the local directors of Enel hired the Santander bank to go out and probe possible interested parties in the majority shareholding package of Edesur.
A few days after that move, the news from Italy about the landing of a Enel’s new global CEO in replacement of Starace, he would have put a temporary brake on the search for potential buyers of the electricity distributor.
Change of the president of the Enel group at a global level could put the sale of Edesur on hold
Under the command of the Prime Minister Giorgia Melonithe Italian government—which owns controlling shares in Enel—decided to remove Starace from the global leadership of the group that he had been exercising for nine years and to appoint in that position Flavio Cattaneo.
Current executive vice president of Italo–the high-speed train operating company– and close relationship with magnate and former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi; Cattaneo is preparing to land as head of the Enel board of directors in the second week of May.
Graduated as an architect from the Milan Polytechnic in 1999 and with a specialization in “Finance Applied to Real Estate”, Cattaneo returns to companies in the energy sector after holding the position, between 2005 and 2014, the position of CEO of Terna, the operator of the national electrical transmission system of Italy.
According to the European media, Enel’s new helmsman has “consolidated experience in managing large industrial companies, both in the private and public sectors, operating in the construction, communications, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors.” .
Following the official confirmation of Cattaneo as Starace’s successor, industry analysts noted that between his first measures there would be a possible redefinition of the deadlines at stake for finalizing the withdrawal of Edesur and the change of the current presidents of Enel Américas, Borja Acha Besga; from Enel Chile, Hernán Chadwick Piñera and from Enel Argentina, Claudio Cunha by executives close to him and trusted.
To this external factor that would have repercussions on the immediate future of Edesur, another internal element was added that aims to improve the valuation of the company and that could also be taken into account by Enel to “recalculate” the output of the electrical distributor.
The former CEO, Francesco Starace, affirmed that the decision to pack his bags is due to the fact that the country “has the most bizarre regulation in the world”
This is the decision of the electrical regulatory entity (ENRE) to start the “Comprehensive Tariff Review” (RTI) of Edesur together with those corresponding to Edenor and the carriers Transener, Transnoa, Transnea, Transba, Transpa, Distrocuyo, Transcomahue and EPEN.
Through resolutions 363 and 364, the intervention of the control body headed by the massista Walter Martello established a 30-day deadline to develop “guidelines and development schedule” for RTIs which will contain the works plans, investment levels, service quality indices and the new rate charts that the Government undertakes to grant to electric companies in the 2024-2028 period.
