Il BoD Tim, which met late yesterday afternoon, gave an initial response to the potential offer of the American fund KKR to launch a takeover bid on 100% of the Italian telephone company. As it was obvious that it was, the board of directors confirmed the validity of the industrial plan Labriola which was recently approved and which aims to reorganize the group by dividing it into two (network and services), without leaving the Stock Exchange, "in view of the possible integration with Open Fiber" for the creation of the single network. But the Board of Directors Tim did not close the doors to KKR, also because, in hindsight, the two plans are less distant than what is believed, except for the delisting imagined by KKR and excluded by the Council.
Tim: Board mandates Rossi and Labriola to explore the takeover bid Kkr: the objectives
Unanimously the Board Tim gave mandate to the President Salvatore Rossi and to the CEO Pietro Labriola to “start an interlocution with KKR, formal and additional” compared to the contacts already initiated by the consultants. With what goal? He explains it the official statement issued late after the end of Bod Tim: “Get information to evaluate the attractiveness and concreteness of the potential offer (of KKR) from a financial and industrial point of view and consequently acquire indications on any elements that still need to be investigated, defining a limited period and scope for carrying out a due diligence of an exclusively confirmatory nature".
At the end of the interlocutions, Tim will give “willingness to organize one or more management presentations to answer any needs for further study” and, in any case, Rossi and Labriola will keep the Board of Directors updated for the relevant decisions.
So it opens the confrontation between Tim and KKR, but to find out how it will end and whether or not the takeover bid, which is so dear to the Stock Exchange, will still take time. Already today, however, it will be interesting to see how Piazza Affari will react to the step taken yesterday evening by the Tim board.
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