The reorganization of Telecom Italia Media unveils the cards with the binding offers for the group that controls La7, coinciding with the deadline for the presentation of the proposals set by the advisors of the shareholder Telecom Italia, namely Mediobanca and Citigroup.
And, according to rumors circulating among insiders and reported by Il Sole 24 Ore, at least two offers are reportedly arriving on the table of the group led by Franco Bernabè (from Clessidra and Cairo), which could be finalized this morning. H3G and Discovery, on the other hand, would have presented less interesting redevelopment plans subject to the occurrence of a series of events.
Clessidra, the financial group founded by managers Claudio Sposito, Alessandro Grimaldi and Giuseppe Turri, will present the offer this morning. Assisted by Merrill Lynch, according to rumors, Clessidra has in mind an offer close to 300 million euros for the overall perimeter of TiMedia: that is, both for the TVs and for the three multiplexes for digital terrestrial broadcasting. Clessidra's industrial plan would have been studied alongside the television manager Marco Bassetti, former number one of Endemol, while an alliance with Equinox, the investment company founded by Salvatore Mancuso would also have been discussed.
An offer should also arrive in these hours from the entrepreneur Urbano Cairo through Cairo Communication, former advertising concessionaire for La7. However, the proposal of the entrepreneur, supported by Lazard, would be for television assets only.
There would instead be more uncertainty about the proposals presented by the telephone group H3G and the American Discovery. For the TLC company led by Vincenzo Novari (joined by the banks HSBC and Goldman Sachs) there was talk of an offer of around 250 million for the entire perimeter of TiMedia: subject, however, to the go-ahead, which would be slow in coming, from the Chinese shareholder , the Hong Kong conglomerate, Hutchison Whampoa.
There is also uncertainty about the plans of the Americans of Discovery, which according to rumors should present a proposal through the advisor Morgan Stanley: but according to the rumors, the offer, rather than a purchase, would be an alliance with Telecom in the television sector.
The impression is that in any case the proposals will be far from the expectations of Telecom Italia, which has always maintained that it does not want to sell off its subsidiary. The dossier is under close observation by CFO Piergiorgio Peluso. In fact, Telecom Italia Media capitalizes 242 million on the Stock Exchange: the enterprise value that is obtained by adding the debt (224 million), is 466 million, a figure higher than the values circulating today.
Meanwhile, still on television, there is anticipation for the press conference that the financier Tarak Ben Ammar (director of Mediobanca and Telecom Italia) has organized for tomorrow in Milan. Ben Ammar will announce an investment plan in the Italian media. According to rumors, the television and film producer (which in Italy has a total turnover of around 120 million) would have found a partner, in addition to the transalpine shareholder TF1, with whom to engage within our borders. The operation will be led by Prima TV, the holding company of the Ben Ammar group in Italy which controls Dfree (the network that broadcasts the Disney, Universal, BBC and Mediaset channels on digital terrestrial) and the three television channels under the Sportitalia brand. Furthermore, in the summer there was talk of Ben Ammar's possible interest in Ti Media and La7, but at that time the French-Tunisian entrepreneur had denied any interest and said he was not among the suitors.
