Everything but the mail: Poste Italiane lures investors with its non-postal business

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Everything but the mail

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The postal service is set to sell 40% of itself in Italy’s biggest privatisations in 16 years

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AS POSTE ITALIANE, which runs Italy’s postal service, starts its privatisation road show today, it is selling more than a 40% stake in itself. The listing, which is due to take place later this month and expected to raise €7.8 billion-9.8 billion ($9.9 billion-11.1 billion), puts Italy itself in the shop window. This is the country’s biggest privatisation in 16 years and the linchpin of a sell-off programme that the government hopes will pay down at least some of Italy’s €2.2 trillion pile of national debt. It also offers the postal sector another chance, following listings by other European operators and in advance of one by Japan Post, to persuade investors that firms whose traditional business is in deep trouble have a decent future.
Thanks to the ubiquity of e-mail and other forms of electronic messaging, the number of letters delivered in the European Union …
Source: The Economy