It won't be an easy game that the American fund KKR opened yesterday with the purpose of launch a friendly takeover bid on 100% of Tim's shares. It will not be because his generous offer – 0,505 euro per share for a share that is currently worth 0,34 euro, with a virtual prize of 46% – would entail deadweight losses for Vivendi and for Cassa depositi e prestiti, who are the main shareholders of the telephone company. And it won't be because it remains to be seen how far it can go the neutrality of the Draghi government faced with the sale of a strategic asset such as Tim's network.
But KKR is too shrewd not to have evaluated these uncertainties before announcing its desire for a takeover bid. And it is too powerful to be able to afford to imagine an operation which, net of political uncertainties, will have high costs. After all, the firepower of KKR it is known. According to the reconstruction that the Corriere della Sera, the American fund, which is an absolute leader in world finance, has over 400 billion dollars under management, about 1.500 employees and consultants, 470 analysts distributed in 20 cities and 16 countries that generate almost 200 billion dollars in revenue each year .
Born in the mid of 70s as a vulture fund, when it was founded by Jerome Kohlberg, Henry Kravis and George Roberts (hence the acronym KKR), today the fund is, so to speak, cleaned up and operates as an investment fund across the board. In Europe he is famous for having become the first shareholder of the largest publisher of the Old Continent, the German Axel Springer.
In Italy KKR has had its eye on Tim for some time and has already entered in the FiberCop network with an investment of 1,8 billion euros which allowed him to acquire 37,5% of the last mile network company of which Tim retains 58%. The conditions for the leap in quality that the Opa Tim entails were therefore all there. But getting into the game is something else and predicting how it will end is for now just a bet that will certainly heat up the Italian financial and political scene.
