State-owned Poste Italiane has announced it will buy the stake in Telecom Italia (TIM) which is held by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP).

CDP, which owns a 9.8 percent stake in TIM, will in turn acquire Poste’s 3.78 percent stake in Italian payments group Nexi.

Financial terms of the transaction were not revealed, though it’s estimated that CDP’s stake in Telecom Italia is around €440 million ($460m).

Postal services company Poste offers mobile phone services through Poste Mobile.

Its investment in TIM follows reports earlier this month that French telecoms company Iliad Group was lining up a possible tie-up with the carrier.

TIM hasn’t commented publicly on the deal.

“The operation represents an investment of a strategic nature, with the aim of creating synergies between the companies and favoring, with all the players involved, the consolidation of the telecommunications market in Italy,” Poste said in its announcement.

Italian state lender CDP is TIM’s second-largest investor behind France’s Vivendi, although Vivendi wants to sell its stake in TIM, following the company’s €22bn ($22.8bn) sale of TIM’s fixed network spin-off NetCo to investment firm KKR last year.

CVC Capital Partners is interested in buying Vivendi’s 24 percent stake.

Vivendi heavily opposed the sale of TIM’s fixed network after TIM approved a sale last year without making it conditional on a vote by shareholders. Instead, the board voted 11-3 in favor of the deal.

Last month, an Italian court rejected Vivendi’s request to annul the sale of TIM’s landline grid to investment firm KKR.