SuPER: Survey of Public Enterprises Return
Invitation letter to contribute
What is SuPER?
Dear Sir or Madam,
we are a research team coordinated by Professor Massimo Florio (University of Milan, Department of
Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods) and we would like to introduce you the SuPER
project, which stands for “Survey of Public Enterprises Return”. SuPER is an empirical contribution to the
CIRIEC project on “the Future of Public Enterprise”. The purpose of SuPER is to monitor and analyze the
evolution of public enterprises, broadly defined as enterprises whose controlling shareholder is a public
entity (see details below). We want to verify whether a process reviving public enterprises and reversing
privatization is effectively taking place, in the last decade and worldwide, as suggested by some literature.
We are interested in analyzing the extent and characteristics of this trend - which countries and sectors are
mainly involved- and the features of the new public enterprises, to which extent and how they diversify
themselves from privately-owned enterprises in terms of corporate organization, objective function,
market strategy and economic performance.
The SuPER on-line questionnaire
To develop this analysis we have first to collect information on new public enterprises: enterprises
established since 2000 and worldwide whose controlling shareholder is a public entity. For instance, a new
public enterprise is established when a public entity or a public enterprise acquires another enterprise (see
below for some examples of events giving rise to a new public enterprise). The success of this survey
largely depends on the voluntary contributions from people willing to signal the cases of new public
enterprises they know. To promote an active participation we have designed an on-line questionnaire
consisting of twenty questions about: the event giving rise to a new public enterprise; its ownership,
corporate organization and economic activity. People can share their knowledge about new public
enterprises simply by filling the on-line questionnaire. Participation to the survey will be rewarded with
free access to the resulting database, once the data collection phase is completed.
How can I contribute to SuPER?
Participating is easy.
You just have to contact the SupER team to this e-mail address publicenterprise@unimi.it. You will then
receive a personalized link to the on-line SuPER questionnaire. By filling the questionnaire you can signal
the new public enterprises that you know.
We hope you will find SuPER an interesting project and that you are willing to collaborate with us.
Our most sincere thanks
The Research Team of SuPER
publicenterprise@unimi.it
How can I find more information about SuPER?
We have designed a website dedicated to the SupER project http://www.publicenterprise.unimi.it/
In this website, you can find more information about the SuPER project. You can read the SuPER on-line
questionnaire, learn more about the structure of the questionnaire, and find some guidelines that will help
you to fill it. Moreover, in order to clarify the data we want to collect with SuPER we provide below a
definition of the term “public enterprise” and some examples about “events giving rise to new public
enterprise”.
What do we mean with the term “public enterprise”?
With the term “public enterprise” we broadly refer to a company that is controlled, directly or indirectly,
by a public entity (public authority at different levels -national, regional, local-, State, government,
municipality etc.). In other terms, an enterprise is meant to be public when a public entity is the controlling
shareholder of the company, giving it the right to appoint the majority of the executive directors in the
board of the company, and thus influencing its strategy, management, organization, service delivery, etc.
We consider a public entity to be the controlling shareholder of a company when it owns at least 25% of its
shares.
Which are the events that can give rise to a new public enterprise?
A new public enterprise can be established by different types of events. For instance:
a) Acquisition: this event should be reported in the questionnaire when a public entity or a public enterprise
acquires an existing company and establishes itself as the controlling owner of the acquired company.
Example the Italian public enterprise ENEL –controlled by the Italian Government- has acquired the Spanish firm
ENDESA. We can also think of the case of the United States Government that became the controlling shareholder of
some major U.S. corporations (AIG, Citigroup, GM ) to avoid their bankruptcy.
b) Merger: this event should be reported in the questionnaire when two or more enterprises agree to merge
and a new public enterprise is issued in their place.
Example the merger between the French enterprises GDF and Suez into the new public enterprise GDF-Suez, where the
French government is the major shareholder.
c) Demerger: this event should be reported in the questionnaire when a public enterprise decides to split-out
an internal division as a legally independent entity, and the resulting subsidiary is ultimately controlled by
the parent public enterprise.
Example the Italian public oil company ENI- ultimately controlled by the Italian Government- that demerged the
internal oil storage division as a new subsidiary named STOGIT that is controlled by ENI itself.
d) Green-field: this event should be reported in the questionnaire when one or more public entities or public
enterprise establish a new public enterprise, also through a joint venture.
Example Several municipalities of the Regione Umbria establish the new public utility, named Valle Umbra SpA, to
provide water service at an inter-municipal level.
e) Legal reorganization: this event should be reported in the questionnaire when an existing public enterprise
changes its legal form and corporate organization (becoming joint stock companies, limited liability
companies etc.) while continuing to remain publicly owned.
Example the previously statutory French company La Poste changed its legal status becoming a limited liability
company that continues to be 100% owned by the French Government.