F2i closes the Sorgenia reorganisation. Now the Edison and Tirreno Power dossiers

F2i closes the reorganisation of Sorgenia, creating a maxi energy pole with over 6 GW of installed capacity, and prepares for two other hot dossiers in the sector, both Italian-French: the break-up of Tirreno Power, the former Enel genco in which Sorgenia itself shares control with Engie, and in prospect Edison, where the picture is more fluid pending Edf's decisions.

Today, barring any last-minute unforeseen events, signatures will be put on the contracts sanctioning the entry of the American investment fund Sixth Street (assisted by Rothschild and Cleary Gottlieb) with 38% in Sorgenia. The latter is a distant relative of the company rescued by the banks in 2015, then relaunched by the then CEO Gianfilippo Mancini, and finally consolidated as a major national operator by F2i, flanked by Asterion (now exiting). The energy group, recovering in 2025 after a loss-making 2024, will in fact take over Ef Solare, Renovalia and Renovalia Tramontana, all controlled by the fund led by Renato Ravanelli and specialised in wind and solar power in Italy and Spain, as part of the reorganisation. Assets that will join renewables, four gas plants and Sorgenia's one million digital clients to form a group with a total of over 6 GW, a 5 GW green pipeline and valued at over 4 billion in the deal with Sixth Street. The final outcome is that Sorgenia becomes an integrated group in which the intermittency of renewables is offset by combined cycles: there is no shortage of challenges in the Italian energy market, but the potential for growth is there. For its part, F2i, assisted by Mediobanca, Intesa Sanpaolo and Lazard, recently also defined the sale of Kos to Cir, definitively closed the second fund, after the first had been 'rolled over' to the third.

The closing on Sorgenia could unlock another reorganisation, that of Tirreno Power, which has been stalled for months waiting for the game to be resolved upstairs. The ex-Genco Enel has experienced a similar path to Sorgenia: secured in 2015 with the sword of Damocles of the trial linked to the Vado Ligure coal-fired power station (which then closed with an acquittal, although the Public Prosecutor's Office has appealed), it has been restructured and has cleared its debts. It is worth around 400 million, but about half will have to meet the Sfr (equity financial instruments) subscribed at the time by the banks for the rescue and now mostly in the hands of Barclays and Polus Capital. This is the first knot of the reorganisation, on which no agreement has been reached to date. Then there is the issue of the division of Tirreno Power's assets between the two equal shareholders, Sorgenia and Engie Italia. The basic scheme assigned the two less noble thermoelectric plants (Naples and Torrevaldiga) to Sorgenia, which could nevertheless have put them into a system with the Aprilia (Latina) plant and the combined cycle in Vado, more connected to the French in the north, with the fate of the hydroelectric (just under 80 MW) to be defined, perhaps in function of a cash adjustment. Even in this case, however, despite recent negotiations, it is difficult to reach an agreement.

Another hot front for F2i could be Edison, where Edf is studying opening up its capital. The game will come to a head at the beginning of 2026, but it is well known that Foro Buonaparte is a long-standing target for Ravanelli, who was also its chairman. The picture at the moment is fluid: much will depend on the decisions of the French.

F2i basically prefers majority operations, but putting a foot in Edison could also be a move functional to the future valorisation of Sorgenia. Of course, significant resources are needed to move on this dossier, and the fund will launch its new 1.5 billion fundraising in January. According to some observers, F2i's idea could be to create a cordata with other parties, including foreign ones, as it has already done on the Telecom network. A hypothesis that has yet to be verified. Certainly, for the Italian government, the presence of the infrastructure fund would be an element of guarantee in particular for two key assets held by Edison with a view to national energy sovereignty: hydroelectric power and the widely diversified portfolio of gas contracts. All the more so if Paris were to make a surprise decision to relinquish control, a hypothesis that would certainly be more appetising for F2i.