“We have always said we would talk to everyone and we continue to do so. The discussion with Vodafone and Wind is more advanced and we will bring an agreement to the council meeting on the 22nd”. In front of the Industry and Public Works commissions of the Senate, the CEO Francesco Starace thus formalizes the now imminent green light for Enel's broadband project linked to the installation of the new second generation digital meters that the group plans to start distributing from May. Starace, who had anticipated in recent days the squeeze on decisions in the Board of Directors, he added that "we are at the final stage of an agreement for about 250 cities", relating to areas A and B (those in which the market is in competition) and "we are ready to expand it" specifying that "tables are open with Telecom and Fastweb ”. And also “Metroweb is interested in various ways”. In short, you concluded, "the interest of the operators is there".
At the end of the hearing, Enel's CEO then told reporters that "it's a commercial deal, I don't think they will be shareholders." Starace, answering reporters' questions, then said he believed it possible to reach an agreement with all the operators.
The slides given to the senators read "openness to the shareholding structure of both institutional and private investors, both domestic and foreign". Starace said that "Italian and foreign investment funds" are being considered and that "they could enter not only as lenders but as partners". The "contacts are quite concrete", he added, clarifying however that "first the business plan and industrial alliances must be drawn up", then the financial ones. "It is not so urgent - he also added - because at the beginning we are not talking about large investments". Responding to a question about the number of funds he aims to involve, Starace said that "we would not like to have more than two funds". With minority stakes? “It depends on them,” he replied.
"The shareholders of Enel open fiber will be above all financial because they will allow us to face the financing problems" for the construction of the network" concluded the top manager.
Starace explained that the commercial advantage for telephone operators is substantial since the costs of fiber cabling, for Enel open fiber, will be 30-40% lower "being able to exploit the existing electrical infrastructure". The CEO then pointed out that while "the telecommunications network can reach 21 million end customers, the electricity one reaches 32 million".
Not only that, but Enel plans to replicate the business abroad: in fact, there are "30 million additional possible cables around the world, a lever of value creation for Enel, not only in Italy".
