Only in the next few weeks will Telecom Italia's autumn campaign really get going, but the signals that Franco Bernabè is reaching these days from his two main fronts for maneuver – the spin-off of the network and the sale of Telecom Italia Media – are certainly encouraging. For the sale of the group's two TVs (La7 and MTV) and the three multiplexes for digital terrestrial broadcasting, the data room will open tomorrow for the three bidders for the purchase, i.e. for Claudio Sposito's Clessidra fund (which for now is the one that offered the most), for Discovery Communications and for H3G. But the novelty of the last few hours is the probable arrival of a fourth offer from Urbano Cairo which, in this way, would circumvent the legal dispute that has begun on the advertising revenue that his company has guaranteed to TI Media so far.
Until recently – Berlusconi reigning – it was simply unthinkable that Bernabè managed to advance on the quicksand of vetoes and counter-vetoes on the sale of his TVs for the subversion of the television and commercial balance that such an operation would have caused. But today's reality is that the tender is getting underway and that for the first time Telecom Italia is beginning to see the objective of further reducing its debt and of eliminating, with the sale, the losses that its television branch incurs despite the undeniable quality of its offer. We will see in the next few weeks if Telecom will hit the target of selling both TVs and multiplexes, but the first stages of the tender are promising and above all the determination of a fund like Clessidra, which has a not insignificant financial endowment and which makes use of the Bassetti's television (ex Endemol), suggests that this time the game is well underway.
The other front that is particularly close to Bernabè's heart is also on the move, namely that of the web. The growth in demand for broadband also in Italy and the regulatory evolution both in Italy and in Europe convinced Bernabè to cross the Rubicon and put the spin-off of the network at the top of Telecom Italia's agenda with the intention of transferring it to a newco in which other shareholders should enter, starting with Cassa depositi e prestiti. The novelty of the last few hours, which clearly emerged from the annual telecommunications conference in Capri, is that institutional authorities as well as other companies interested in the network and broadband are strengthening that there is no room in Italy for two networks fixed and that a fratricidal battle between Telecom on one side and Metroweb-Cdp-F2i on the other would be simply insane. "Logica wants - claimed in Capri the president of the Cdp, Franco Bassanini as shareholder of F2i and of the subholding that Metroweb has in its womb - that Metroweb should merge into the project" of a single company that controls and manages the network without dispersion of resources and without unnecessary overlaps. It is no coincidence that the confrontation between Bernabè and Bassanini has already begun and is getting to the heart. Its outcome will essentially depend on two variables: the convergence or otherwise on the value to be attributed to the network infrastructure and the business plan of the newco, which means "how, in which portions and in what times" wrote yesterday "Il Sole 24 Ore ”- make the copper infrastructure evolve towards the more expensive but more performing fiber optic network”.
But, if Bernabè and Bassanini's willingness to agree remains decisive for the success of the operation, the further novelty that plays in its favor and which also emerged clearly from the Capri conference is the new role that Agcom (the Communications Authority) has been intent on playing since the Montian Angelo Cardani took over the presidency. The message that the new president of the Authority launched in Capri appeared very clear when he said that "what we can do is reduce regulatory uncertainty" thus making the return on investment more predictable.
It is too early to say when and how the network's bet will end, but if the beautiful day starts in the morning the autumn campaign of Franco Bernabè and Telecom Italia but also that of the Cdp has certainly started under good auspices.
