Ei Towers begins its trading day by making a real rally. A little over half an hour after the opening of the markets, on the Star segment, the share gained 15,5% and reached 57 euros per share, aligning itself with the price of the tender offer just launched.
In fact, the purchases were triggered by the news of the voluntary takeover bid for 57 euros per share of 2i Towers, a corporate vehicle wholly owned by 2i Towers Holding which is 60% controlled by F2i (Cdp) and 40% by Mediaset . The announced objective of the operation is the delisting, but if this fails, the merger of EiTowers with one of the unlisted vehicles upstream of the corporate chain created for the takeover bid will be evaluated. We recall that, in turn, Ei Towers is 40% owned by Mediaset.
"The takeover bid on Ei Towers enhances a significant asset for Mediaset", commented the company from Cologno Monzese.
The price offered corresponds to a premium of 15,5% with respect to the closing date of 16 July, when prices reached 49,35 euros, and of 19,4% with respect to the average of the last six months. Overall, the maximum amount of the takeover bid will be 1,6 billion euros in the event of total adhesion by the shareholders of the company of the towers. The agreement also establishes that Elettronica Industriale (the Mediaset subsidiary which owns 40% of Ei Towers) will tender its 11,3 million shares held in acceptance of the offer. The disbursement will be dealt with through a medium-long term loan of up to 480 million made available by Intesa Sanpaolo, Mediobanca and Unicredit as well as through capital contributions and shareholder financing by the two allies in the operation. This is what we read in the note from 2i Towers.
Through this reorganization, Ei Towers will become "an independent operator" a role which, according to the expectations of Mediaset and F2i, will allow the company to "participate more easily in the process of consolidating the business of broadcasting and telephone towers underway at a national level and international". To date, Ei Towers manages the main Italian network for the transmission of the television signal (over 2.300 towers), a network for the transmission of mobile telephone services (over 1.100 towers) and has a fiber optic backbone of over 6.000 km serving of your infrastructure.
It should be noted that, in order for the transaction to be completed, 2i Towers must achieve an overall stake in the capital of Ei Towers greater than 90%. The project will then, as usual, have to overcome the ax of the Antitrust.
This takeover bid could therefore represent a first step in creating a single pole of the Towers which, in the near future, could also include Inwit and Rai Way. However, the Renzi government had placed the need to maintain public control over the latter. However, the market now seems to be projected towards the pole: it is no coincidence that Ray Way shares soar by 18,6%, +1% for Inwit.
Returning to the Stock Exchange, in addition to the race of the tower companies, it is necessary to highlight the performance of Mediaset which has taken the top of the Ftse Mib with a rise of 4% to 2,84 euros. The numbers achieved by the Mediaset networks on the occasion of the World Cup also had an impact on the performance of the Cologno Monzese share. Cumulative viewers of all matches amounted to 297 million viewers, 49 million more (+19,7%) than the previous edition with Italy on the field. Finally, we must also remember the agreement with Perform and Mediaset Premium for the streaming of three Serie A matches and the entire Serie B.
