A4 Holding S.p.A. known as Gruppo A4 Holding (previously as Serenissima Group), is an Italian holding company based in Verona, Veneto region. The company owned ''Autostrada Brescia Verona Vicenza Padova'' (100%), the operator of Brescia–Padua section of

Autostrada A4 The Autostrada A4, or Autostrada Serenissima (" Serenissima motorway"), is an '' autostrada'' (Italian for "motorway") long in Italy located in the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia which connects Turin and Trieste ...

and Autostrada A31 (Rovigo via Vicenza to Piovene Rocchette), as well as an equity interests in Autostrada del Brennero, the operator of

Autostrada A22 The ''autostrade'' (; : ''autostrada'', ) are roads forming the Italy, Italian national system of motorways. The total length of the system is about , as of 30 July 2022. There are also 13 motorway spur routes, which extend for . Most of the ...

(Modena to Brenner Pass; 4.2327% stake via ''Serenissima Partecipazioni'' which A4 Holding owned 99.999% stake) and Autostrade Lombarde, the parent company of the operator of Autostrada A35 (Brescia to Milan; 4.90% stake via ''Autostrada Brescia–Padova'').

History

Autostrada Brescia Verona Vicenza Padova ( P.IVA 00212330237; Verona CCIAA: 57409/1952) was the operator of Brescia–Padua section of

and Autostrada A31. On 6 December 2011, the company was renamed to A4 Holding S.p.A., with a new subsidiary (P.IVA 03614140238; Verona CCIAA: 0350682) owned the concession to operate the toll road, effectively spin off the function of holding company from the operator. The concession of Autostrada A31 was originally expired on 30 June 2013, which was agreed in 1999, after that the company started to construct the extension from Vicenza to Rovigo in the south in 2005. The concession was challenged by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

in 2004. The

European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially the Court of Justice (), is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is tasked with interpreting ...

ruled that Italy failed to fulfill the obligations under

European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body (directorial system) and a symbolic collective head of state, that defines the overall political direction and general priorities of the European Union (EU). It is composed of the he ...

Directive 93/37/EEC. On 3 October 2006 Italian Decree-Law 262/2006 was announced, which amended the power of

ANAS ''Anas'' is a genus of dabbling ducks. It includes the pintails, most teals, and the mallard and its close relatives. It formerly included additional species but following the publication of a molecular phylogenetic study in 2009 the genus was s ...

(both operator and regulator of Italian toll roads) in order to comply with EU rule. On 12 October European Commission sent a formal notice (applying Article 258 of

TFEU The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) is one of two treaties forming the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU), the other being the Treaty on European Union (TEU). It was previously known as the Treaty Establish ...

) to Italy regarding the issue (infringement procedure N° 2006/4378). In July 2007 the concession was extended to 31 December 2026, applying Decree-Law 262/2006. The concession was confirmed by Decree-Law 59/2008 and Law 101/2008, despite the status of the infringement procedure. On 8 October 2009 European Council closed the case.

Shareholders

The company was a subsidiary of a consortium led by

Intesa Sanpaolo Intesa Sanpaolo Società per azioni, S.p.A. is an Italian international banking group. It is Italy's largest bank by total assets and the world's 27th largest. It was formed through the merger of Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI in 2007, but has a ...

. The bank had a controlling voting rights (65.92%) in Re.Consult Infrastrutture, the direct parent company of A4 Holding (R.C.I., via three companies Investire nelle Infrastrutture (IN.FRA), Compagnia Italiana Finanziaria (CIF) and Iniziative Logistiche, the latter two Intesa Sanpaolo owned 63.78% stake and 60.02% stake respectively); R.C.I. owned 44.8530% stake in A4 Holding as at 31 December 2014, (which received about 5% shares from CIF circa 2013) Intesa had an additional 6.5433% stake in A4 Holding, held directly by banking subsidiary Equiter (as at 31 December 2014, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intesa).

Astaldi Astaldi S.p.A. is an Italian multinational major construction company based in Rome. The group is active in the fields of civil engineering, hydraulic engineering, electromechanical engineering and transportation. Significant subsidiaries incl ...

was the minority shareholders of R.C.I. (31.85% via wholly owned subsidiary ''Astaldi Concessioni''), which the construction company merged its subsidiary ''A.I.2 S.r.l.'' (the holder of the equity interests in A4 Holding) into R.C.I. on 1 January 2014. Infrastrutture CIS (InfraCIS) was a minority owner of CIF (8.33%) and Iniziative Logistiche (8.97%), which in turn Primo Fondo Italiano per le Infrastrutture and Cassa del Trentino were the minority owners of InfraCIS. The last two shareholders of CIF were 2G Investimenti ( Giuliano and Guglielmo Tabacchi) and Esperia Servizi Fiduciari (subsidiary of Banca Esperia). Intesa Sanpaolo acquired the shares of R.C.I., CIF and Iniziative Logistiche in year 2010 due to the collapse of the business empire of Mario Rino Gambari, which the shares were collaterals to the bank. The shares of CIF and Iniziative Logistiche held by 2G Investimenti were also pledged to Intesa Sanpaolo in year 2011. Lastly, ''Infragruppo'', a company that A4 Holding had a significant stake (49.01%), the bank also had a 21.71% stake as at 31 December 2009, as well as had a significant loan to the company. In 2011 ''Infragruppo'' was merged into ''Serenissima Partecipazioni'', which A4 Holding increased it stake to 99.999%, the minority interests and the loan previously held by bank was repaid via the capital increase of A4 Holding, by the bank and other shareholders. In 2016

Abertis Abertis Infraestructuras, S.A. () is a Spanish worldwide corporation engaged in toll road management. The company is headquartered in Madrid. The company runs over 8,600 kilometres of toll roads in the world. In October 2018, it was acquired by I ...

announced that the company would buy the stake held by Old Equiter (ex-Equiter, a shareholder of ewEquiter; 6.5433% stake) and Re.Consult Infrastrutture (44.8530%) for €594 million. The second largest shareholder of A4 Holding was Società delle Autostrade Serenissima (8.3732% as at 31 December 2014, increased from 1.6874000% in May 2011), the ex-operator of Padua–Venice section of Autostrada A4 until 2009. A4 Holding had a

cross ownership Cross ownership is a method of reinforcing business relationships by owning stocks in the companies with which a given company does business. Heavy cross ownership is referred to as circular ownership. In the US, "cross ownership" also refers t ...

of 14.45% stake in Società delle Autostrade Serenissima as at 31 December 2014, (decreased from 19.05% in December 2011) which was sold completely as in 2016. Mantovani–FIP Group ( Serenissima Holding) had a significant voting rights of 35.28% in Società delle Autostrade Serenissima (as at 2016), as well as a minority interests (0.1617%) in A4 Holding via Impresa di Costruzioni Ing. E. Mantovani, an Italian construction company. Unione Fiduciaria was the third largest shareholders, which acquired the entire 4.6671% stake from Milano Serravalle – Milano Tangenziali on 25 July 2014. The bank would eventually transferred the entire stake to Società delle Autostrade Serenissima in 2019 in installments. *private investors (67.7728%) # a consortium led by

(51.3964%) ## Re.Consult Infrastrutture (44.8530%) ## Old Equiter (6.5433%) # Società delle Autostrade Serenissima (8.3732%) # Unione Fiduciaria (4.6671%) # Banco Popolare (2.7071%) #

Banca Popolare di Vicenza Banca Popolare di Vicenza (BPVi) was an Italian bank and currently a winding-down company. The banking group along was the 15th-largest retail and corporate bank of Italy by total assets at 31 December 2016, according to Mediobanca. However, its si ...

(0.2043%) # Impresa di Costruzioni Ing. E. Mantovani (0.1617%) #

Fondazione Cariverona Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Verona, Vicenza, Belluno e Ancona, also known as Fondazione Cariverona is an Italian banking foundation based in Verona, Veneto region. The foundation was created in 1991. History Due to the , a law that required ba ...

(0.1425%) # Condotte d'Acqua (0.1204%) * Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Artisanship (8.6994%) # Brescia Chamber of Commerce (1.5732%) # Bergamo Chamber of Commerce (1.5472%) # Verona Chamber of Commerce (1.5042%) # Padua Chamber of Commerce (1.3500%) # Venice Chamber of Commerce (1.1794%) # Vicenza Chamber of Commerce (1.0701%) # Milan Chamber of Commerce (0.4753%) ## direct (0.0001%) ## Holding di Partecipazioni Parcam (0.4752%) *Local governments (23.5278%) #

Province of Vicenza The province of Vicenza (; ) is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital city is Vicenza. The province has an area of 2,722.53 km2, and a total population of 865,082 (as of 2017). There are 113 ''comuni'' (municipalities) in th ...

(7.4373%) # Comune of

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

(4.6480%) #

Province of Brescia The province of Brescia (; Brescian: ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. It has a population of some 1,265,964 (as of January 2019) and its capital is the city of Brescia.With an area of 4,785 km2, it is the ...

(4.5096%) #

Province of Verona The province of Verona (Italian: ''provincia di Verona'') is a province of the Veneto region in Italy. On its northwestern border, Lake Garda—Italy's largest—is divided between Verona and the provinces of Brescia (Lombardy region) and Trentin ...

(4.2308%) #

Province of Bergamo The province of Bergamo (; ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Bergamo. The province has a population of 1,103,768 (2023), an area of , and contains 242 ''comune, comuni'' (municipali ...

(2.2976%) # Comune of

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

(0.2426%) #

Province of Venice The province of Venice () was a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Venice. It had an area of 2,467 km2, and a total population of 836,916 (2021). The province became the Metropolitan City of Venice by 1 Janu ...

(0.0809%) # Comune of

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

(0.0809%) #

Province of Milan The province of Milan () was a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Milan. The area of the former province is highly urbanized, with more than 2,000 inhabitants/km2, the third-highest population density among Ital ...

(0.0001%)

References

External links

* {{official site, http://www.a4holding.it/
official site
of Autostrada Brescia Verona Vicenza Padova Private road operators of Italy Companies based in Verona Region-owned companies of Italy Former Intesa Sanpaolo subsidiaries Transport in Lombardy Transport in Veneto Province of Brescia Province of Bergamo Metropolitan City of Milan Province of Vicenza Province of Verona Metropolitan City of Venice Transport companies established in 1952 Italian companies established in 1952