By Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte
MILAN (Reuters) – Italy has put on hold plans by private equity fund CVC and French telecoms operator Iliad to buy into Telecom Italia (TIM) and consolidate the country’s telecoms sector, three sources close to the matter told Reuters.
State-backed financial conglomerate Poste Italiane is preparing to invest in Telecom Italia (TIM), by taking state lender CDP’s 9.8% stake in the former phone monopoly, sources have said. An announcement is expected over the weekend.
The move could give Poste, which runs its own mobile retail operations but does not own a mobile network, a role in expected future consolidation involving TIM. Poste and TIM declined to comment.
After selling its prized landline grid last year to a consortium led by U.S. fund KKR under a government sponsored plan to cut its debt, the downsized TIM has drawn interest from both CVC and rival Iliad.
Both, however, got a cold response from the government in recent weeks as they approached officials in Rome to secure a preliminary green light for their plans, the people said.
CVC had set its sights on the 24% TIM stake that French media group Vivendi is considering selling, while Iliad is keen to combine its Italian operations with those of TIM, Reuters reported earlier this month.
CVC was close to a deal with Vivendi to replace it as TIM’s single largest investor, but it failed to secure a pre-emptive nod from the government, one of the sources said.
Vivendi declined to comment.
Iliad has not secured government backing either at this stage for its plan, with key figures within Giorgia Meloni’s conservative administration reluctant to back a deal that would put a foreign investor in the driving seat at TIM, the sources said. Iliad declined to comment.
Italy considers TIM as strategic and any deal involving its assets needs Rome’s backing. The government must clear any purchase bigger than 3% of TIM’s capital.
(Editing by Valentina Za and Susan Fenton)
