Who is Aldo Spinelli, the entrepreneur former patron of Genoa and Livorno Calcio
Leading figure in the shipping industry. His son Roberto is also involved
3' min read
3' min read
In the investigation that led to the precautionary measures issued against the Ligurian governor, Giovanni Toti, and the former president of the Genoa and Savona Port Authority, Paolo Signorini, the figure of the entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli, together with his son Roberto, appears to be particularly relevant, as regards the corruption of public administrators (see the article opposite).
U sciù Aldo, as the Genoese familiarly call him, to this day is known to the general public more as the president of Genoa (for 13 seasons, six of which in Serie A, from 1985 to 1997) and of Livorno calcio (for 21 seasons, again six of which in Serie A, from 1999 to 2020) than for his companies. But in the circles that count, particularly in the shipping sector, it is clear to all how the Spinelli group, founded by Aldo himself, is a leading company, at the Italian level, in logistics and among the country's major port operators, with terminals in the ports of Genoa and Salerno.
Born in 1940, born in Calabria but raised in Genoa, Spinelli does not belong to the elite of Genoese families: he is a self made man, who entered that elite little by little, starting from a timber transport company and then concentrating on container transport, first by truck and then, since the 1980s, also by train. Over time, it acquired logistics centres in Reggio Emilia (Dinazzano), Milan (Arluno) and Padua. In 1985 it bought an area on the Erzelli hill where it created a warehouse for empty containers, behind the port. It sold that space (with excellent revenues and former Ilva areas in exchange) in 2006: it is the area where the Erzelli scientific-technological campus now stands. But in the meantime the group has expanded. Between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium, Spinelli moved, successfully, to obtain the concession for the Genoa port terminal, which it manages through the company's Gpt division. From there it offers embarkation and disembarkation services for containers, ro-ro ships and various goods. Clients include Tirrenia, Cotunav, Cma-Cgm, Hapag Lloyd, Zim and Cosco.
By now Spinelli has become a full-fledged member of the most important operators in the port of Genoa: with the big names of the Genoese business and political world he now plays cards, scientific scopone, in the first-floor room of the Europa restaurant, where the whole of Genoa that counts lunches and dinners.
When the Msc group entered the port of the Lanterna with its entrance at Calata Bettolo, Spinelli teamed up with Gianluigi Aponte to manage the Genoa Bulk Terminal (of which the Genoese entrepreneur controls 55%). An area of 130,000 square metres (near the Genoa port terminal), for which there is also a plan to transform it into a container pier. In 2015 Spinelli also became (and remained for a few years) a shareholder of Banca Carige, first allied with the shareholder Malcalza and then with the opposing group, tragically Raffaele Mincione and Gabriele Volpi.
