Italy Nears Decision on Revoking Toll Road Concessions, PM Says

(Bloomberg) -- Italy will soon make a decision about revoking highway concessions, a move that will likely raise further tensions with Autostrade per l’Italia, the company that operates more than half of the country’s aging toll roads.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the government was close to ending a review on the revocation process sparked by a deadly bridge collapse, as he set out his priorities for next year. Without a change in the law, a termination of Autostrade’s concession could cost the government billions of euros in compensation.

“Victims of Morandi bridge claim justice and reports attesting insufficient maintenance don’t leave us indifferent,” Conte said Saturday during a press conference in Rome. “We don’t want to give discounts to any private individual, we want to protect the public.”

Since the bridge collapsed 16 months ago near Genoa on a motorway operated by Autostrade, a unit of the billionaire Benetton family’s Atlantia SpA, the owners have been trying to head off government efforts to revise contracts for what is a lucrative business. The disaster killed at least 43 people, angering the public and sparking conflict between Conte’s administration and the companies that run the nation’s roadways.

2020 Goals

Conte said other goals for next year include simplifying bureaucracy and decreasing the tax burden. The economy will grow thanks to a “strong infrastructure plan” involving Southern Italy, he added.

Still, the government coalition he leads is facing several internal tensions. During the press conference, Conte unveiled Lucia Azzolina as his next appointment for education minister, after the last one Lorenzo Fioramonti resigned over a lack of funding for the education sector. He is also making Gaetano Manfredi the university and research minister.

--With assistance from Alberto Brambilla.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniele Lepido in Milan at dlepido1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebecca Penty at rpenty@bloomberg.net, Neil Chatterjee, Sara Marley

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