Munich The Italian infrastructure holding company Atlantia is vying for the Siemens road traffic subsidiary Yunex Traffic. Atlantia, which is controlled by the Benetton family of entrepreneurs, confirmed on Wednesday evening that it had submitted a binding bid for Yunex. The financial news agency Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the situation, that the Italians were one of the most promising bidders. The interest of financial investors such as KKR and Bridgepoint, however, has cooled, so that a company from the industry could come into play. According to one of the insiders, Siemens can expect almost a billion euros for Yunex.
That would be significantly more than the technology company had hoped for the subsidiary. According to Archyde.com information, the expectations were around 700 million euros. Siemens wants to part with Yunex because its products from traffic lights to traffic control systems to toll systems do not really fit into the core business of the Mobility train division. Yunex’s turnover was most recently more than 600 million euros, and the company is profitable.
The company fits into the new strategy of Atlantia, it said in the announcement. The holding hit the headlines after the collapse of a motorway bridge in Genoa, which was part of the road network of the Atlantia subsidiary Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI). After years of tug-of-war with the government, Atlantia had sold the toll road operator to a consortium of investors for a good nine billion euros. Thereafter, Atlantia declared that it would not only participate in motorways, airports and toll systems in the future, but also want to be active in related business areas such as intelligent traffic solutions.
Siemens wants to decide on the award within a few weeks, it said in the Bloomberg report. The company was initially unavailable for comment. Final bids for Yunex were due shortly before Christmas.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
More: Luciano Benetton: “From the first moment they wanted expropriation”
.