“The gist of Metroweb's never-ending story: our reasoning is that we at Telecom Italia are the industrial actor of the country that should be in charge. We are ready to recognize the role of guarantor for other operators to the co-investor. But once we gain more strength in society our role will have to be recognised”. Thus, responding to a Barclays analyst, Marco Patuano summarizes the position of the former incumbent.
“During the discussions – specifies the CEO of Telecom however – other more complicated paths were proposed to us. But it is our belief that it is the simple things that work”. In short, the negotiation with CDP and Fondo Strategico ended up on a dead end. Indeed, it seems to be over except that at the end of June Vivendi, the new reference shareholder, will enter the group's shareholders. And it is not excluded that Vincent Bolloré, a great storyteller, can find the right key to reopen the game. But, for now, the stop seems definitive, after an interminable marathon. “I think we are the company in the world that holds the board of directors more often and where there is more discussion. And in recent times there has been talk above all of the network”.
In the end, many reflections had led to the latest proposal: the entry of Telecom Italia into Metroweb Sviluppo with the aim of covering 250 cities with the fiber network up to homes through a capital increase that would have guaranteed the former incumbent a share initial 40%, destined to rise over time, first to 80%, then to complete control. Provided that the governance envisaged the leadership of the project to Telecom from the outset. The answer, says Il Sole 24 Ore, came with an e-mail signed by Maurizio Tamagnini: "Cdp and Fsi are not in a position to proceed with the joint analysis of the national fiber project in terms of the draft memorandum of understanding sent by Telecom Italia".
Once the great alliance has been archived, barring surprises, the question of broadband remains open. On Thursday, Infratel gave the go-ahead for the consultation to update the map of the availability of broadband and ultra-broadband services. An obligatory stop to understand what role and contribution the State will be able to provide to update the national infrastructure. “It will be a unique opportunity – comments Patuano – to find a positive combination between the interests of private individuals and the needs of the public sphere”.
So far the long-standing discussion on the web, which partially obscured the results for the first quarter of 2015, welcomed with moderate satisfaction by the market which rewarded the stock with a 1,44% increase. Net income fell to 80 million after the buyback for 300 million of existing bonds. "No other similar operations are planned in 2015" specified the financial director Piergiorgio Peluso, engaged in the launch by the summer of the IPO of Inwit, the newborn company of the Telecom towers. “We are convinced that the issue of towers in Italy is only just beginning, as demonstrated by the Galata operation and the offer on Rai Way. For this reason we have rejected the hypothesis of enhancing Inwit through a direct sale. With the IPO we will be able to participate in the second wave of reorganization of the sector”.
On the other hand, there is no news regarding the transformation of savings shares: Telecom's top management considers the instrument "obsolete" but "the market will decide the timing of the transformation". It is still early to give numbers on the potential of the industrial alliance with Sky. In the meantime, the growth of broadband is proceeding at increasing speed, supported, among other things, by the improvement in the EBITDA of the Italian activities which in the first quarter of this year presented an incidence on revenues of 44,3%, "one of the higher margins among European competitors”.
The CEO also acknowledged that operating dynamics are improving in both the fixed and mobile segments and predicted a progressive improvement in financial results, a trend that continued in April as well.
