Rai is returning to profit. And it does so after eight years and precisely at a time when it is trying to turn its buildings into cash and efficiency.
The Board of Directors of public television has approved the draft 2025 budget with a positive consolidated net result of EUR 9.3 million: a figure that interrupts a long season of breakeven and that will lead to paying employees, for the first time since the current bonus system has been in force, a 100% result bonus. It is a sign of a Rai ‘that has rediscovered discipline, direction and the ability to execute’, according to Rai CEO Giampaolo Rossi. In his statement, Viale Mazzini speaks of economic and financial discipline, rejuvenation of the workforce, digital skills and artificial intelligence tools. The net financial position stands at EUR 585 million.
For Rossi, the last line in black “is a result that marks a clear discontinuity: the last profit dates back to 2017, and the one achieved today is among the best in the last eighteen years, without resorting to extraordinary operations, as was the case in the past”. These words are intended to place the balance sheet within a broader narrative: not just a reorganisation, but an attempt to redesign Rai as a digital media company, capable of expressing efficiency also in accounts and assets.
In this context, the Rai communiqué indicates that a passage (‘update by the CEO’) was also made yesterday in the BoD on the Real Estate Plan. Which represents a significant dossier: 15 prestigious properties to be sold, equal to 23% of the entire estate, with the aim of realising almost 250 million. The deadline for expressing interest expires today at 12 noon. Then, by July, non-binding expressions of interest are expected, with binding offers arriving around October. Working on the dossier, as advisors, are Kpmg Advisory, Kroll Advisory and BonelliErede.
According to the Sole 24 Ore, there have been around eighty requests for more information, suggesting a variety of subjects who may eventually want to see the cards in more depth. Rai’s objective is to identify a single party to whom all the assets will be sold. Meanwhile, the Mic has expressed interest in Teatro delle Vittorie in Rome and Palazzo Labia in Venice. At this point, it will have 60 days, after notification of the sale contract with the successful bidder, to exercise pre-emption. But at the same price. According to what has been reconstructed by the Sole 24 Ore, there would have been no lack of distance between the councillors on the plan in the board of directors, and the debate would even have been close at times. The knot raised would be an accounting one: if the process were not to be closed by the end of the year, there would be less revenue to count for 2026.