The Italian government has said it plans to sell off its 13 percent stake in Europe's largest semiconductor chip vendor STMicroelectronics NV, as part of a program of privatization national assets.
The program, which includes the sale of minority shares in Italy's postal service and air traffic control agency, is intended to raise about $12 billion to alleviate a debt burden that Italy suffers under.
As of 2012 about 72 percent of ST's ownership was public with stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Euronext exchange in Paris and the Borsa Italiana in Milan. About 27 percent is owned by a holding company that is in turn owned 50:50 by Fonds Strategique D'Inventissement on behalf of the French government and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti on behalf of the Italian government.
It is also reported that these entities each have a golden share that grants preferential voting rights despite the minority stake.
It remains unclear how quickly the Italian government plans to move or whether the French government will do the same and sell off its holding, pick up the Italian stake, or take no action.
The Financial Times quoted Fabrizio Pagani, senior economic adviser to Italian prime minister Enrico Letta, as saying: “We want to hurry up and take advantage of this market window.” Pagani said that the sale would be by way of an IPO.
At ST's current market capitalization of $7.42 billion The Italian government would raise about $960 million by selling its stake.
ST has suffered two years of quarterly losses as it has tried to disengage from the mobile chip business and focus on sensors, analog and embedded processing. The company made a net loss of $36 million on revenues of $2.015 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 but expects to return to profit in 2014.
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