Milan-listed internet provider Tiscali confirmed yesterday rumors about a mandate to Mediobanca as advisor in a process to evaluate all strategic options for the group (see here the press release). Tiscali is now controlled by Russian multibillionaire Vadim Belyaev.
Among potential investors interested in investing in Tiscali are Italy’s tlc providers Fastweb and Linkem, Il Sole 24 Ore wrote. Linkem is a wireless broad band internet provider controlled by US asset manager giant BlackRock, US investment company Leucadia National Corporation and the US financial services group Cowen Group (see ahere a previous post by BeBeez).
The group is burdened by 178 million euros of net financial debt (some of that is in default already) and is in talks with lenders for a standstill agreement while preparing a new strategic plan for 2018-2021. Standstill will be relative to a senior loan facility by Intesa Sanpaolo and Banco Bpm and a sale&lease back contract by Mediocredito italiano and Unicredit Leasing (see here the press release).
Meanwhile the group postponed the vote on FY 2017 financial statements by next April (see here the press release). As for H1 results, however, Tiscali posted good figures. The group actually posted a 24,5 million euros net profit, the first net profit in its history, and said it was expecting a net profit for the whole FY too. In H1 the group reached 103.6 million euros in revenues (+6.9% from H1 2016) and 14.4 millions in ebitda (+16.3%) (see here the press release).
