MILAN: The Italian treasury has dropped a request for a special dividend of 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion) from state holding company Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, a Treasury source said, as the government looks to use the firm to help troubled steel maker Ilva.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Sunday that if no private buyer could be found for Ilva, he was open to "public intervention" to save jobs and output at its plant in the southern city of Taranto.
The treasury, which owns 80 percent of CDP and is under pressure to raise money to cut Italy's public debt, initially pushed for a payment of up to 1.2 billion euros from the CDP, three sources told Reuters on Nov. 20. But on Monday a treasury source said it would not seek the money, adding those funds would be used by the CDP to finance "the real economy".
The CDP has received a special dividend of 1.5 billion euros on the sale of energy grid assets. A second source close to the government-appointed special commissioner
that is overseeing Ilva said the government was looking at the possibility of involving the CDP to fund a government-sponsored rescue of the steelmaker.
A few days ago CDP CEO Giovanni Gorno Tempini said his group could invest in companies "interested in Ilva" and on Thursday said decisions over a dividend were up to the treasury.
Ilva, Europe's biggest steel plant by output capacity, was placed under special administration last year after being accused of failing to contain toxic emissions, threatening the jobs of its more than 16,000 employees.
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