By Giuseppe Fonte and Valentina Za
ROME (Reuters) - Italy can use a public offering, an accelerated bookbuilding procedure or a block trade to sell almost 30% of postal service Poste Italiane, a government decree showed on Friday.
The sale is part of Rome's plans to raise roughly 20 billion euros ($21.6 billion) from asset sales between 2024 and 2026 to curb the world's fourth-largest debt pile in relation to domestic output.
Poste on Thursday raised dividend payments more than expected and signalled it could further increase its payout when it presents its strategy on March 20.
The decree, adopted on Jan. 25 but presented to Italy's parliament only on Friday, confirmed the Treasury would sell all or part of its 29.3% direct stake in Poste, while retaining control through another 35% held by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP).
The sale may take place in one or "several stages", or even by using a combination of the methods listed in the decree.
Outlining the criteria for a public offering, the decree said it may envisage incentives for retail investors, including Poste employees, to maintain a broad shareholder base.
Italy raised 3.1 billion euros in 2015 when it sold 35% of Poste in an initial public offering that valued the group at 8.8 billion euros.
Rome considered a further stake sale in 2016 under the centre-left government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, but decided against it due to concerns that higher private ownership of the group would put pressure on Poste to boost profitability.
With its 12,893 offices spread across the country, Poste is often the main provider of financial services in the least populous of Italy's 7,896 towns, especially for pensioners who have a harder time travelling.
Poste is investing to refurbish thousands of its outlets and provide a wide range of public services to its less digitally savvy clients who would struggle to access them online.
As part of the project, on Friday the group said it was launching a trial service to handle passports requests, as Italy fights post-pandemic bottlenecks which have prompted tourist lobbies to complain delays in passport issuance are costing them millions of euros in lost revenues.
Poste is currently worth around 14 billion euros and the stake sale could bring in more than 4 billion.
Disposals are back on the agenda in Italy as the period of expansionary fiscal policy triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic ends next year, when stricter European Union budget rules kick in under the reform of its Stability and Growth Pact.
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