 In 1962 the centre-left coaltion government of Christian Democrats and Socialists decided the nationalisation of the electric sector in Italy, in order to break the oligopolistic power of the four dominant electric companies that then dominated all the national market.With the compensation money it obtained from the state, Edison, then headed by Giorgio Valerio, invested heavily to diversify its activities, primarily in the petrochemical sector and by buying Standa supermarkets chain, continuing producing power only for self-consumption.However, this straegy was unsuccessful, as competition with both state-owned Enrico Mattei's giant Eni and Montecatini, a large private chemical company, proved too hard, so in 1965 Edison was eventually forced to merge with Montecatini, forming Montedison, the largest chemical company in the country.