MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Italy's antitrust authority said the latest concession and tariff deal between Atlantia SpA's main motorway operating unit Autostrade per l'Italia SpA restricts competitition and penalises consumers.
In a call to Italy's government and parliament, the authority said it wants the two institutions to look again at the latest legal framework, that removes space for motorway infrastructure competition.
'In addition it is necessary to maintain a tariff system that gives incentives for minimising costs and for transferring increased efficiency to the final consumer,' it said in a statement.
The authority said it has examined recently-approved laws, and subsequent agreements between motorway agency Anas and motorway concession holders.
In particular on the Autostrade per l'Italia concession, the main national operator, the authority said construction and management of new motorway stretches will not face competition.
'In addition, the agreement, foresees an annual adjustment of motorway tariffs for the the life of the agreeement from Jan 1, 2008 to Dec 31, 2038, equal to 70 percent of inflation,' it said.
'In this way, the previous mechanism, linking tariffs to productivity and quality of service (in addition to inflation), is abandoned,' it said, noting this favoured lower consumer tariffs.
Atlantia is due to present the impact of the latest concession agreement, including on earnings, to analysts Monday. nigel.tutt@thomsonreuters.com nt/jlw COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
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