The battle between Telecom Italia and Enel for the conquest of Metroweb is in full swing. And the outcome is yet to be written. After the presentation of Enel's offer on Thursday, with an enterprise value of 806 million, Telecom Italia – which had let it be known that it was not willing to relaunch – would instead put the subsidiary Sparkle on the negotiation plate. For the moment these are rumors, reported by Radiocor, but the novelty reopens the game after the offer initially presented by Telecom was due to expire today, Friday 20 May.
THE ENEL PROPOSAL
A double track would follow: the first provides for the exit of F2i (53,8% of the capital) in two phases with Enel Open Fiber (Eof) which would first acquire the stake held by the Fund and then proceed with the merger with Metroweb. The second track, on the other hand, envisages the merger between Eof and Metroweb and subsequently a dilutive capital increase which would lower F2i's stake to approximately 25%. The times for the negotiation which involves not only the top management of Metroweb and F2i but also directly those of Cassa Depositi e Prestititi (owner of the remaining 46,2% through the Strategic Fund) are in any case tight if the intention were, as they say, to arrive at a definition of the match before decisions on tenders for areas C and D, those where the market alone cannot finance the laying of the fiber.
THE TELECOM ITALIA PROPOSAL
After the presentation of the Enel proposal, Telecom would therefore also be willing to offer 100% of Sparkle, the company of the group number five in the world in international fiber optic networks. According to Radiocor Plus, the group led by Giuseppe Recchi and Flavio Cattaneo would in fact have expressed to Claudio Costamagna its willingness to sell Sparkle on the basis of assessments similar to those currently dealt with by Level3, the market leader in international connections, i.e. around 11/12 times the EBIDTA.
Applying the Level3 valuations, Sparkle, which in 2015 recorded an EBITDA of approximately 195 million, would be valued at 2,1/2,3 billion euros. In this hypothesis, CDP and F2I could therefore contribute all of Metroweb and make an adjustment of around 1,3/1,4 billion. According to Telecom, the advantage of this economically more affordable proposal for CDP would be to return the State to the ownership of a strategic asset such as Sparkle.
THEoffer that Telecom Italia presented on May 9 for 100% of Metroweb evaluates the company in a range between 703 and 816 against the 820 million that was initially spoken. Furthermore, almost all of the proposal concerns the operating subsidiary Metroweb Milano (Telecom is offering 734 million), on which Fastweb still has a pre-emption right.
THE ADVANTAGES OF ULTRA-BROADBAND
Outside of the dispute, the figures released by Istat today are striking. Ad hoc estimates, says the 2016 Istat Annual Report, "show that any total coverage of the ultra-broadband in territorial areas not yet covered would lead to an increase in added value of 23% in market services, 11% in construction and 9% in commerce and industry in the strict sense”.
Above all, the Centre-North would benefit with increases between 16% in Valle d'Aosta and 11% in the Marches, while the South would record more contained increases, between 10% in Campania and Calabria and 7% in Sicily .
