ROME/MILAN: The entire board of Italy's state railways resigned on Thursday in a move that gives the government a free hand to appoint a new management team to drive forward its privatisation plans.
The Treasury said it expected to appoint new directors soon.
The widely expected shake-up comes three days after Rome announced plans to sell a 40 percent stake in the rail company and list it in Milan. According to the government's schedule, Ferrovie dello Stato will go public next year after the sale of air traffic controller Enav is completed.
A dispute between Chairman Marcello Messori and Chief Executive Michele Mario Elia over which assets should be put on the block has held up the sale of a group where profitable high-speed trains co-exist with regional and commuter services.
Both Messori and Elia will be replaced in the shake-up. Some railway employees oppose the privatisation plans.
The Unione Sindacale di Base, a small, independent labour union, called a 21-hour strike starting this evening in protest.
"There is a high risk that another strategic asset will be given away," the union said in a statement.
The announcement of the Ferrovie disposal follows the successful listing last month of the national post office and is a sign Rome feels confident its state assets can draw investors to Italian shores.
The government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, which is sole owner of the railway group, is banking on privatisations to raise funds to cut public debt and make state-owned groups more efficient. Italy, which has the second-largest debt pile in the euro zone, is targeting 8 billion euros in revenues from state asset sales next year.
Ferrovie dello Stato, which last year racked up revenues of 8.4 billion euros ($8.9 billion), has assets estimated to be worth nearly 39 billion euros, most of it track and infrastructure.
At a cabinet meeting on Monday, the government passed a decree to kickstart the sale, stressing that the track network would remain in public hands.
The government has still to decide exactly which railway assets will be carved out for disposal.
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