Post service 'will respond to market'

(ANSA) - Rome, October 12 - The flotation of the Italian national post office means it will now be able to respond to the markets, transforming a company that was once "conservative, corporatist and dominated by politics", Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Monday.
    Renzi wrote on Facebook: "Listing of the Italian post office on the stock exchange: a company that 10 years ago was conservative, corporatist and dominated by politics, will now respond to the market. This is a big change." The partial sale of up to 40% of Poste Italiane, Italy's national postal service, was hailed on Monday by The Financial Times as "the biggest privatisation in more than a decade" - one on which the government of Premier Matteo Renzi has "staked its reputation".
    In the article, Poste Italiane CEO Francesco Caio said the privatisation is "very large by Italian standards" and "opens up the privatisation window after a long freeze", adding that it provides "the opportunity and the challenge to show what we are capable of as a company and a country".
    On Monday, at the presentation of the IPO, Caio said the privatisation "surely has financial and economic importance, but also has an industrial policy importance and will contribute to the modernisation of the country".
    He said the performance of the postal service would be reviewed in two years' time. At that point he said they would look again at "the market to see if this policy can be changed and to see what potential for investment we have".
    He added that he had received "a positive response "in meetings with investors in London and New York in view of the listing.
    "There is interest in Italy," he said "And Italy is considered a country that can benefit more than others from the slight economic recovery due to its economic performance and the reforms of the government." Caio said Poste Italiane was "confident" that the European Commission would not declare State aid and that "they were very close" to receiving this confirmation.
    Caio confirmed Monday that the postal company is taking on 8,000 new workers. "We confirm (the hiring of 8,000 people). It has already started," Caio said. "They are needed to change and reinforce the professional profile of the postal service to better serve the public". Susanna Camusso, the head of the union Cgil, said she had "great concerns" about the privatisation, emphasising that "it must maintain its public essence".
    "We have always said that privatising the country's companies to make money is a questionable decision," she said. It must have "a broad shareholder base that does not undermine the qualities of the group".
    As well as running Italy's postal service, Poste Italiane also has a thriving banking arm.