The path defined in recent months by Sas – Shipping Agencies Services, controlled by the Msc group, by Moby and by Gnv – Grandi Navi Veloci has been definitively approved by the Autorità garante per la concorrenza e per il mercato.
This was communicated by a note from the Antitrust, following the procedure which saw the intervention of the Grimaldi group rejected and the commitments of the companies involved in the alleged cartel accepted, after some adjustments, which, “as integrated following the market test, appear overall suitable to resolve the competition problems highlighted in the start-up measure” according to the Agcm.
In particular Sas, which had purchased the share for 150 million euros in July 2023, “will transfer free of charge (even though in the actual measure part of this wording is redacted, ed.) to Onorato Armatori (the company which, with a 51% stake, controls Moby) the 49% of Moby’s shares in its possession and will also renounce the pledge on the remaining 51% obtained as security for the loan granted to Moby in 2023”.
For its part “Moby will entrust a third party with the organization of a competitive and transparent procedure, open to all interested operators, to sell a package of assets (in a single lot, ed.) identified on the basis of an independent appraisal; the proceeds from the sale will be used to repay the loan received from Sas; to continue to guarantee Moby’s operations, some assets will be subject to charter back constraints; should the proceeds from the sale of these assets prove insufficient to repay the Sas loan, any residual credit will be transferred to independent third parties, under conditions respectful of Moby’s economic and financial sustainability”.
Finally “Moby and Gnv have also committed to granting compensation to consumers who purchased, before the date of publication of the commitments (July 16, 2025), a trip on the Genoa-Olbia, Genoa-Porto Torres, Civitavecchia-Olbia routes to be taken in the period June-September 2025, or a trip on the Naples-Palermo route on weekends between November 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025. For Moby, this compensation is equal to 5% of the ticket price (net of taxes, charges and Ets), if the consumer chooses a refund, and 10% if they choose a voucher instead. For Gnv, the amount is 15 euros for cabin trips and 7% of the amount paid for other trips”. In both cases, the measure states, the total expenditure will be between 1 and 5 million euros.
