Vivendi pressing on Tim. Meanwhile, the EU gives the go-ahead to the “new” Open Fiber

Fire day for the Italian Tlc. Tim has to contend with majority shareholder Vivendi who wanted an extraordinary board of directors to discuss nnew reorganization plan announced by CEO Luigi Gubitosi and also of the unified network dossier who has been bogged down for months. All while Unconditional approval for the reorganization of Open Fiber arrives from the EU Antitrust dfter Enel’s exit. In the wholesale company, the weight of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti increased, rising to 60% from the previous 50%. The remaining 40% to the Australian fund Macquaire.

“The European Commission has approved, pursuant to the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of joint control of Open Fiber Spa by Cdp Equity Spa, both Italian, and Macquarie Group Limited, Australian”, Announces the EU Commission. “The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns given the absence of horizontal overlaps or vertical relationships between Macquarie’s businesses (including its portfolio companies) and Open Fiber.” The Commission also assessed whether, in light of Cdp’s interests in Tim, the transaction would have increased the coordination risks between Open Fiber and Tim. “Without prejudice to the applicability of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU or any other equivalent national provision on possible anti-competitive effects, the commission concluded that the possible anti-competitive problems are not specific to the proposed transaction, as Cdp Equity already had joint control of Open Fiber. The transaction was examined according to the normal merger review procedure “.

The role of the funds in the game of the Italian ultra-broadband was decisive: the American Kkr already has an important presence in Fibercop, Tim’s new wholesale company of which it holds 37.5%. And according to CorCom, the fund would be willing to rise further and set foot in Noovle as well, the cloud company of the Tim Group. Always according to rumors an “adjustment” of the AccessCo project is in the offing – that is the newco of the networks in which the assets of Tim and Open Fiber should converge. The crux remains that of the ownership of the infrastructure that Tim has always declared he does not want to give upAnd. And therehe question is not so much linked to the Antitrust profile – Europe could consider the operation a “concentration” – but to Tim’s debt management. If the telco were to give up ownership of the network, while keeping the backbone and the primary network in its belly, this could lead to problems with the banks. The solution could be to migrate (substantial) part of the debt to the newco, to guarantee bank loans (also considering the subsequent listing of the newco on the basis of the Terna model) but the operation is not easy and could involve “reorganization” at shareholder level.

in the meantime the unions accuse the Mise of not giving adequate attention to the issue of telecommunications: “Minister Giorgetti and Undersecretary Ascani have convened” ad horas “the leaders of Dazn on the issue of football championship broadcasts, While the state of the telecommunications sector has been denounced for months and in particular the issue of the delay in the infrastructure single fiber network, the priority is to summon Dazn! ”, they write in a joint note Slc Cgil, Fistel Cisl and Uilcom Uil announcing “mobilization becomes inevitable in the absence of a prompt call“.

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