MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Rodolfo De Benedetti, chief executive of CIR SpA, said the reorganisation of the holding company does not herald the sale of its publishing unit Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso SpA.
CIR said on Thursday that it will spin off Sorgenia, Sogefi SpA, Holding Sanita e Servizi, and all its other non-media activities in a new company that it will list on the Milan stock exchange.
CIR will keep its controlling stake in L'Espresso and both CIR and the new non-media entity will remain controlled by Cofide SpA.
The spin off 'was not done to sell L'Espresso. If we wanted to sell it we could have done it without separating the assets,' De Benedetti said during a conference call. philip.webster@thomsonreuters.com pw/ra 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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