The Benettons have also proposed Atlantia chief executive Carlo Bertazzo serves another term to 2024, Edizione said.

Bertazzo has run Atlantia during tough negotiations with the Italian government to settle a dispute triggered by the 2018 collapse of a motorway bridge managed by its motorway unit.

Massolo, who ends his term as chairman of state-controlled shipbuilder Fincantieri in the coming weeks, has in the past served as head of the Department of Information Security (DIS), Italy's spy agency.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Alexander Smith)