The submission of KKR‘s binding offer to TIM’s Board of Directors for NetCo, i.e., the company that will hold the management and infrastructure perimeter of the fixed telecommunications network currently owned by TIM, could slip to October 15. The U.S. infrastructure fund in fact, has asked to be allowed to postpone by 15 days the deadline that had been set for September 30 last June, and TIM has let it be known that it will consider the request at the board meeting next Wednesday, September 27 (see the press release here). Barring any unexpected upheavals, it is virtually certain that the extension will be granted.
Recall that KKR had won precisely last June the right to negotiate on an exclusive basis the purchase of control of TIM’s NetCo, with the tlc group’s Board of Directors giving a mandate to ceo Pietro Labriola to initiate, on an exclusive basis, an improved negotiation with the U.S. fund, aimed at “obtaining the presentation in the shortest possible time, consistent with the complexity of the transaction and in any case by September 30, of a final and binding offer” (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
Meanwhile, a crucial meeting will be held in the coming days between the Italian Government representatives and those of Vivendi, the French media group, TIM’s largest shareholder at 23.75 percent, which has always put the brakes on the deal because it considers the price offered by KKR to be too low. It is well known for the French shareholder that NetCo’s value is 31 billion (see here a previous article by BeBeez), a far cry from the 23 billion that KKR has put on the table (see here a previous article by BeBeez). In fact, Vivendi’s ceo, Arnaud de Puyfontaine, sent a letter to the Treasury asking for a meeting before KKR submits its binding offer on the network, a meeting that the government has agreed to and that is thought could already take place this week.
Meanwhile, we recall that at the end of August the Italian Council of Ministers, at the proposal of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Minister of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti, gave the green light to the entry of the Ministry into the capital of NetCo, as part of the transaction organized by KKR, putting up to 2.2 billion euros on the plate, for a share of NetCo between 15 and 20 percent, with the resources that will be drawn from the availability of the so-called earmarked assets, created by Decree Law No. 34 of 2020 and amounting today to 2.525 billion (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
At the end of the transaction KKR should hold about 65 percent of NetCo’s capital, the Italian Treasury Ministery precisely 15-20 percent, while the remaining share could be distributed between Italy’s National Promotion Institution, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, and Italy’s major private capital infrastructure investor, F2i sgr. In this regard Mr. Giorgetti had said, “Possible involvement of CDP, taking into account Antitrust constraints,” referring to the fact that CDP is already a majority shareholder in Open Fiber“.
