The Toto group is preparing to enter the new company that will control La Stampa. Alongside the Sae group of publisher Alberto Leonardis, the Agnelli-Elkann family, Reale Mutua, and some players from Piedmont capitalism, there will also be the Abruzzo holding active in infrastructure, highway concessions, and energy. The operation is still being defined in terms of exact shares and final structure, but it marks a new step in the Toto family’s interest in the national publishing world after entering, a year ago, the capital of the Roman daily Il Tempo.
The details of the deal are reported by Italia Oggi , according to which the group led by Carlo Toto will invest (with a share yet to be defined) through a sub-holding controlled by Leonardis, destined to hold 51% of the new Stampa. Around the remaining 49%, a galaxy of minority shareholders is being formed, including the Agnelli-Elkann family itself – set to remain in the project through the new “Fondazione 9 febbraio 1867” – along with entities like Reale Mutua, Confindustria Torino, Confindustria Cuneo, and some local banking foundations.
THE NEW STRUCTURE OF LA STAMPA
The geometry of the operation tells a lot about the project Leonardis is building around the historic Turin daily. The new sub-holding led by the Sae patron will maintain control of the publishing company, but alongside the Aquilan publisher will enter carefully chosen financial and local partners. In this scheme, the Toto group should have a minority but significant stake, while the Agnelli-Elkann family will keep a share around 20%, perhaps even higher, mainly symbolic and guaranteeing the identity of the newspaper. The message intended for the Piedmont area is clear: La Stampa changes ownership but does not sever the historic bond with Turin and the industrial Northwest.
According to what emerged at the table convened in the Piedmont Region, the sale should be completed by the end of May. At that point, Leonardis will be able to start reorganizing the daily currently directed by Andrea Malaguti. Italia Oggi reports that one of the first dossiers concerns the weight of the signatures and collaborators of the paper, whose total cost impacts the newspaper’s accounts by about 4 million euros per year. On the editorial front, the name of Antonio Di Rosa continues to circulate, a historic director and man very close to the Sae universe, previously leading Secolo XIX, Gazzetta dello Sport, and Nuova Sardegna.
Meanwhile, Leonardis is trying to reassure institutions and unions about the newspaper’s future. “It will be a glocal newspaper, investing primarily in innovation, very digital and present on social networks,” the publisher explained during the Turin meeting. The idea is to maintain a strong local presence while developing a series of ancillary activities around the daily – events, academies, projects with schools, vertical publications – that allow financially supporting the editorial business. “Publishing holds up if projects develop around publishing,” Leonardis summarized.
THE ABRUZZO AXIS BETWEEN LEONARDIS AND TOTO
Within this operation, the alliance between two Abruzzo entrepreneurs like Leonardis and Carlo Toto also stands out. An axis that in the past had already crossed paths on the dossier of the daily Il Centro, but then from opposite sides. In 2016, in fact, Leonardis was part of the group that acquired the Abruzzo newspaper put up for sale by Gedi, while Toto looked at the same deal from a different position. This time, however, the two entrepreneurs march together.
It is precisely the profile of the Toto group that makes the operation interesting. The holding founded by Carlo Toto is not just any investor. It is one of the main Italian players active in large infrastructure, construction, highway concessions, and renewable energy. As also recalled by Startmag on the occasion of entering the capital of Tempo, Toto Holding controls companies such as Toto Costruzioni, Infra Engineering, Renexia, and especially Strada dei Parchi, concessionaire of the A24 and A25 highways connecting Rome to Abruzzo. The group approaches a billion euros in turnover and has about 1,500 employees.
THE PRECEDENT OF TEMPO
The Toto family’s interest in newspapers, therefore, is not new. Already in 2025, the Abruzzo family surprised the market by acquiring 40% of Il Tempo from the Angelucci family. An operation that sparked much discussion not only for its political-editorial significance but also for the figures involved.
At the time, Toto Holding acquired the share of the Roman daily through an agreement with Editoria Italia, the Angelucci family’s publishing vehicle, which controls Libero and is the majority shareholder of Giornale. What caused the most debate, however, were the numbers of the deal.
For 40% of Tempo, the Toto family reportedly paid as much as 14 million euros, as reported by Fatto Quotidiano. A figure considered very high for a newspaper with revenues under 8 million and losses exceeding one million annually. The daily directed by Tommaso Cerno, acquired by the Angeluccis in 2016 for 12.5 million, would thus have reached an implicit valuation of about 35 million euros.
Several rumors circulated around that operation. According to Fatto, “murmurs” even emerged inside Angelucci’s Tosinvest, where someone hypothesized that the sale of a share of Tempo was a sort of quid pro quo for the return to Toto of the Strada dei Parchi concession. A reconstruction that both Tosinvest and Toto Holding strongly denied.
THE STRADA DEI PARCHI DOSSIER
However, the issue did not arise out of nowhere. In recent years, the Strada dei Parchi dossier has been one of the most delicate in the relationship between the State and highway concessionaires.
In 2022, the Draghi government revoked the concession of the A24 and A25 highways from the Toto company, citing deficiencies in maintenance and network management. A drastic decision that opened a billion-euro dispute and risked putting the Abruzzo group in serious difficulty. The situation reversed in 2023, when the Meloni government reinstated the concession. According to Fatto’s reconstruction, Strada dei Parchi risked obtaining billion-euro compensation, and the government decided to close the dispute to avoid further judicial tensions. Toto Holding has always maintained that there is “no cause-and-effect relationship” between the highway affair and the investment in Tempo. But the issue inevitably fueled political interpretations of the publishing operation.
NEWSPAPERS, CONCESSIONS, AND TERRITORIES
It is within this framework that the entry into La Stampa takes on a meaning beyond simple financial diversification. Because the Turin daily is not only a historic newspaper: it is also one of the main informational hubs of the industrial Northwest, one of the country’s most economically strategic areas.
And precisely in the Northwest is also concentrated the presence of another giant of Italian highway concessions: the Gavio group. Through ASTM, the Piedmont family’s holding controls routes such as Turin-Milan, Turin-Piacenza, Savona-Ventimiglia, Turin-Savona, Cisa, and Ligure-Toscana. A group with over 4.6 billion euros in turnover and about 6,200 kilometers of network managed between Italy and Brazil.
Officially, of course, the operation is read only as an editorial and territorial investment. However, the fact remains that, for groups active in regulated sectors and with high institutional relations intensity, having a foothold in national information could represent a significant element. After the Roman Tempo, now the Toto group is also looking under the Mole.
