NEWS
The Italian incumbent has received two new bids for its fixed assets from investment firm KKR and a consortium of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) and Macquarie
TIM confirmed receipt of two new non-binding bids yesterday, meeting the deadline it had set for interested parties to improve their bids for the operators fixed network business and assets. Reports in Reuters indicated that the bids were from both KKR and the CDP-Macquarie consortium, both of which originally bid earlier this year.
The new bids, would add around €1bn-€2bn to their offers, with the Italian financial press reporting that the CDP/Macquarie consortium had raised its offer to €19.3 billion, from its original bid of around €18 billion, while KKR has added about €1 billion to its bid, taking it to €19 billion plus €2 billion in earn-outs in the event of a TIM/Open Fiber network merger.
As noted in both Reuters and reports in Italy, TIM’s share price dropped from €0.31 to €0.30 at the news, with the market seemingly underwhelmed by the new offers – both of which are still far below the €31bn valuation of Vivendi, TIM’s largest shareholder.
TIM has been looking to sell its largest asset to tackle its debt which stood at €25.4bn at the end of last year, with further plans to sell of its wholesale division Sparkle part of a broader restructuring. With TIM indicating that a decision (if any) won’t be made until early May, this announcement adds to the sense that a resolution is still out of reach.