The shareholders of Lotras, a leading operator in the multimodal rail and road transport sector, have signed a preliminary agreement for the sale of 90% of the capital to CFI, the first independent national railway operator and 92.5% controlled by the infrastructure fund F2i; the De Girolamo family, in the persons of the sole director Armando and his son Nazario, in addition to remaining in the capital of the company, will continue to manage the business, guaranteeing continuity to a success story that started in the 90s and continued with the redevelopment of the terminal of Incoronata (FG) which has led Lotras to become one of the reference players in the field of multimodal transport services with particular reference to the Adriatic axis. The formalization of the agreement is expected by the end of September.
Lotras, in addition to being the main national operator in the rail transport of grape derivatives and other food liquids with a fleet of over 200 owned wagons, provides intermodal transport services including the innovative rail transport of semi-trailers, the so-called "highway traveling”, along the Adriatic axis, diverting the transport of thousands of tons of goods from road to rail and favoring that transition of the handling of goods towards more sustainable modes of transport which has always been one of the cornerstones of Armando De Girolamo and his family. The company is also the concessionaire of the railway terminal of Incoronata (FG) and manager of that of Villa Selva (FC) and boasts a unique strategic positioning on the Adriatic axis for the management of the flow of goods from the South to Northern Italy and Europe and viceversa.
The operation with CFI, leveraging on the entrepreneurial and managerial support of the De Girolamo family, has the objective of creating an integrated entity capable of promoting and developing rail freight transport in Italy and in Europe, exploiting, on the one hand, operational synergies with the railway company, and on the other by expanding the offer of intermodal transport solutions generated by the interaction between the railway terminals of Incoronata (FG) and Villa Selva (FC) managed by Lotras and those of Fiorenzuola (PC ) and Piedimonte (Frosinone) managed by CFI; to this is added the opportunity to interact with the port and airport terminals already managed by F2i with some of its subsidiaries.
The shareholders of Lotras were assisted in the transaction by Equita K Finance, which acted as financial advisor, by Russo De Rosa e Associati as regards the legal aspects and by the Di Michele studio in Foggia for the accounting, tax and management of aspects related to due diligence.
