Gedi starts exclusive negotiations with Sae for the sale of La Stampa and its assets

La Stampa, the historic daily linked to the Agnelli family, could also pass to the Sae group of Alberto Leonardis, which in recent years has already acquired other local newspapers of the group such as Il Tirreno and La Nuova Sardegna.

Gedi has informed the editor-in-chief and editorial board of the Turin daily that it has entered into exclusive negotiations that include related assets and presses. La Stampa is a separate chapter in the nnegotiation between John Elkann and the Greek group Antenna of publisher Theodore Kyriakou, ready to take over Gedi's publishing assets, which also include La Repubblica, Radio Deejay, Radio Capital and m2o.

According to sources close to Gedi, the advantages of the Sae proposal are manifold: the president and managing director of the Sae group, Alberto Leonardis, is a publisher by trade, with proven experience in the sector. Sae's network - which also includes La Provincia Pavese, Gazzetta di Modena, Gazzetta di Reggio and la Nuova Ferrara - would allow La Stampa to bring a national dimension to a very strong local information system. Moreover, the involvement of local institutional subjects adds a long-term perspective to a solid industrial project: Sae now also opens up to Piedmontese institutional subjects. In the coming days, contacts will be initiated with some bank foundations.

"It is good news that the historic La Stampa newspaper is the subject of interest from various publishing groups, as I have repeatedly pointed out. The opening of exclusive negotiations for the sale of the Turin daily to the Sae Group, which already has local institutional subjects among its partners, represents a strategic initiative aimed at promoting the identity of a newspaper anchored in the territory," commented Alberto Barachini, undersecretary to the Prime Minister's Office with responsibility for information and publishing.
"Gedi's decision to favour the Sae Group's offer appears to be linked to a proposal by the potential buyer to aim for a concrete and ambitious development plan. Sae is committed to protecting its assets and providing employment guarantees," he emphasised.

The editorial boards of the Gedi Group at a hearing in the Culture Committee of the Chamber of Deputies reiterated the need for 'guarantees on the identity of the titles and on employment'. "Gedi's top management told us that it was not possible to introduce guarantees in the sale procedure, as if we did another job and did not know the existence of safeguard clauses. Then, after the interventions of the government and politicians, in the last contact we had with Gedi we were told that the guarantee request would be on the negotiating table, but for us it was just words. We do not have any kind of document to prove it,' said the representatives of the cdr of La Repubblica.