Free Republic

ROME (AFP) - Italy's centre-left government has blocked a proposed 25 billion-euro (32 billion-dollar) merger between Autostrade and the Spanish company Abertis which would have created the world's largest toll road operator, citing the public interest. Italian Infrastructure Minister Antonio Di Pietro and Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa said the merger, agreed in April, was "not compatible" with the government's concession agreement with Autostrade. "The merger would not be compatible or coherent with the aims (of the government) in granting the (motorways) concession," the ministers wrote in a joint letter to Italy's state roads authority ANAS made public late Friday. However,...

AMERICA'S TOLL ROADS, BETTER KNOWN for political patronage than for strong business and financial management, suddenly are hot assets. Already, foreign companies have paid rich prices for highways in Chicago and Indiana. And similar deals could be made over the next few years for the Ohio Turnpike, the Illinois Toll Highway, several toll roads around Houston, the Atlantic City Expressway and perhaps even the New Jersey Turnpike, America's best-known toll road, featured in the opening credits of The Sopranos. Private money potentially also could fund a multibillion-dollar toll bridge that would replace the aging and congested Tappan Zee span across...