AGI – After three days of conclave the white smoke in the Tim house. The company’s board of directors, with 11 votes in favor and 3 against, accepted Kkr’s offer which values the network by up to 22 billion euros. Of these, 18.8 billion are put immediately on the table, then with the possible merger with Open Fiber and future incentives for the sector the figure could reach a total of 22 billion.
The closing of the operation is expected by the summer of 2024. The asset for sale is represented by the group’s primary and secondary network, while a different path is expected for Sparkle. The board, in fact, did not consider the proposal for the submarine fiber cable company to be “satisfactory” and gave a mandate to the CEO, Pietro Labriolato seek an improved offer.
A new beginning
The president of the group, Salvatore Rossi, underlines the “great responsibility and courage” for the board’s decision which “restores a growth perspective” to the company. Labriola speaks of a “historic decision” which he opens up to “a new beginning”. “In this operation we give life to the network infrastructure and at the same time allow the new Tim to focus on the technological innovation needed to govern the complex market of digital services and play a leading role”, continues the CEO who then addresses “to all our shareholders”, to whom it assures that it “always remains open to dialogue and to the perspectives submitted to us, in particular, by the most important shareholders”. There is certainly one of these Vivendithe main shareholder with approximately 24% of the capital, whose hostility to the operation was no mystery.
It is no coincidence that the French media giant dismisses the board of directors’ resolution as “illegitimate” and regrets that “all appeals to reasonableness have remained unheard”, for which “it will use every legal instrument at its disposal to contest this decision and protect the its rights and those of all shareholders”. Same position also on the part of the fund Merlyn which had put forward an alternative project to that of Kkr, dismissed by Tim’s board of directors as “not in line with the Plan”.
Merlyn defines the board’s choice as “disrespectful and wrong”, as well as “hasty and opaque” and announces “that he reserves every possible action” to get the board of directors to convene “a meeting as soon as possible”. Returning to the financial targets, the sale will reduce the debt by approximately 14 billion (without considering the increase in the price with any earn-outs), will free resources to make investments and will allow operating in the domestic market benefiting from the reduction of some regulatory constraints . At closing, therefore, Tim will have “a solid capital structure” with a ratio between net debt and ebitda of less than two times (after lease).
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2023-11-05 21:24:00
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