Good thinking: Atlantia turns to visitors tech right after Italy motorway exit

The brand of Italian infrastructure team Atlantia is found outside the house its headquarters in Rome, Italy, Oct 5, 2020. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

MILAN, March 9 (Reuters) – Owning bought its motorway organization in Italy, Atlantia (ATL.MI) is investing in intelligent site visitors know-how to enable generate improvement of cleaner transportation and open up up new marketplaces this sort of as the United States.

Controlled by the Benetton relatives, the infrastructure team is in search of to at last place guiding it a dispute induced by the lethal collapse of a motorway bridge operated by its Autostrade for every l’Italia business in Genoa in 2018.

It sold that company and has started making use of some of the 8 billion euro ($8.7 billion) proceeds envisioned in the coming months from the transaction to extend into wise targeted visitors tech.

In January, it acquired Siemens Yunex Website traffic division for 950 million euros – a move that built it the only significant motorway operator in Europe with a sensible traffic business.

Now, as first mover, it has the chance to broaden this business enterprise and consolidate a fragmented market.

The enterprise, which will update traders about its potential approach on March 11, sees the targeted traffic technology enterprise as crucial in its possess ideal but also complementary to its current functions.

“The benefit of any freeway and airport business enterprise devoid of technological innovation is destined to drop. In 5-6 decades this could turn out to be one more main organization of Atlantia,” a supply acquainted with the make a difference claimed.

Atlantia’s primary operations are motorways, airports and electronic toll payment corporation Telepass. The group controls Spanish freeway operator Abertis, operates a collection of airports in Italy and France, has a 15% stake in channel tunnel operator Getlink (GETP.PA) and owns 51% of Telepass.

The resource said the team was scouting bolt-on technological know-how alternatives like special reason acquisition companies (SPACs) owned by personal fairness or spun-off ancillary enterprises formulated internally by teams like BMW and Bosch.

Yunex will enable Atlantia to have an understanding of rapidly the industry in which it competes with all over 300 other clever tech teams, the source reported.

“Carmakers could be intriguing partners provided the distinct synergies,” the resource said.

PLUGGED IN

Atlantia’s drive comes as governments all-around the environment look to superior tech to slash automobile congestion and pollution to make large cities much more liveable and enterprises more efficient.

Plugging in visitors knowledge providers and connecting up cars will permit cars and trucks to map their personal routes to slash journey occasions and carbon emissions and give metropolis administrators additional bang for the buck from current infrastructure.

Under strain from the European Union to minimize emissions, several European towns will need to have know-how to optimise targeted visitors flows.

“The most effective route will be picked by the car or truck and not Google Maps – whether that is with or without having a driver,” the resource explained.

Yunex, which operates in far more than 500 towns around the world, has developed a raft of expert services which includes a technique exactly where website traffic lights, cameras and sensors relay data to a manage area that crunches the facts to minimize congestion and incidents.

In the western German city of Wiesbaden, a Yunex procedure released in November with authorities funding offers drivers route and pace suggestions on digital roadside displays managed by a targeted traffic administration centre.

The Wiesbaden control place can take care of flows to ease targeted visitors jams on important roads or give precedence to community transport buses, ambulances and fire engines.

EYES ON America

Atlantia explained in January it envisioned the Smart Transportation Devices (ITS) current market to improve at an ordinary level of 10% a yr to 2026 underpinned by a worldwide change in the direction of additional sustainable transportation.

It is banking on the shift to open up new business traces within cities across the globe like Latin America, wherever its Abertis subsidiary has a solid existence although exterior metropolitan parts, and the United States.

ITS engineering will be required to established up tolling devices and to analyse and handle website traffic volumes.

“The U.S. market is significantly interesting offered the desire for innovation technological innovation to map connections among airports and highways,” a 2nd supply mentioned.

Yunex is by now running in U.S. cities like Boston and counties like Miami-Dade in Florida where by it presents its visitors management method.

The 2nd supply mentioned the small business could offer you double the returns of Atlantia’s common motorway concession business enterprise.

In Europe, Atlantia strategies to replicate Yunex operations in its principal geographic marketplaces – Italy, France and Spain – by presenting solutions to observe urban site visitors and control freeway intersections and tunnels each on its network and on other clients’ infrastructures.

Getlink could turn into one of Yunex’s new prospects, a 3rd source mentioned. Two of the sources added that Atlantia, which has not built any general public assertion on its intentions, was weighing solutions to increase its stake in the channel tunnel operator.

In January, Atlantia reported it envisioned sales at Yunex to reach 1 billion euros in the future 5 yrs from 635 million euros previous yr.

The shift to tech, which contains Atlantia’s the latest investment in electric powered air taxi maker Volocopter, could also lessen the regulatory hazard affiliated with the group’s portfolio of concession-primarily based organizations.

“Next the bridge disaster, it is now crystal clear to absolutely everyone that the regulatory chance is tough to assess and control,” yet another source acquainted with the group’s strategy reported.

($1 = .9192 euros)

Reporting by Francesca Landini and Stephen Jewkes
Modifying by Keith Weir and Jane Merriman

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