Sale of the Brazilian towers, opening up to various integration options with Oi and pressing on Metroweb for the acquisition of a controlling stake. These are the three results issued by the expected Telecom Italia board of directors which, only after the closure of the Brazilian Stock Exchange, was able to announce the outcome.
BRAZILIAN TOWERS – Telecom has approved Tim Brasil's proposed sale of 6.481 towers in Brazil to the American Tower group for 900 million euros.
ALLIANCES – Telecom's management has also received a mandate from the board to explore all the options relating to a possible TimPart-Oi integration with a view to strengthening Telecom's presence in South America or, in the case of a particularly advantageous and indispensable offer, of a total or partial sale of Tim Brasil.
METROWEB – CEO Patuano finally reported on the proposal sent to F2i to formalize Telecom Italia's interest "in rapidly starting discussions aimed at acquiring a controlling stake in Metroweb", considered by Telecom itself "the partner to quickly implement the development plan of the new generation fiber optic network infrastructure (NGN) at the national level”. According to Telecom, the collaboration between the two companies “would represent an important element for accelerating the technological development of the ultra-broadband network in order to: 1) satisfy the prospective demand for ultra-broadband services; 2) promote demand with a proactive approach, making infrastructure available to the country to offer increasingly innovative services; 3) contribute to the achievement of the objectives envisaged in the Digital Agenda, in particular on the dissemination of services with speeds exceeding 100 Mbit/s.
Of course, three unknowns remain open: 1) F21's decision to sell or not its controlling stake in Metroweb; 2) any sales procedures: tender or not?; 3) the antitrust profiles that would derive on the Italian market from a reallocation of Metroweb.
