"For Telecom Argentina we received an unsolicited offer of one billion dollars from an American fund which we have decided to evaluate and which we will try to finalize". It was the CEO of Telecom Italia, Marco Patuano, who confirmed it in an interview with "Corriere della Sera".
The fund that has come forward for Telecom Argentina is the American Fintech fund which is owned by Mexican entrepreneur David Martinez.
"Argentina - explained Patuano - is a good asset, industrially interesting, but the country presents strong risks and then, due to the fact that dividends cannot be taken away, it makes no contribution to Telecom's net financial position".
The sale of Telecom Argentina is, together with the sale of the towers, one of the pillars of Telecom Italia's disposal policy to strengthen its assets without resorting to a capital increase but only to the recent convertible bond.
