It is not yet peace on the fixed network company, but it is the first step of an industrial operation of great importance: Tim and Vodafone combine their antennas in 3,4 and 5 G on mobile. Inwit, currently 60% controlled by Tim with a 40% free float, will acquire the assets of Vodafone and the final result will be that the two Bigs will exercise a equal control at 37,5% each, 25% will be on the market.
Luigi Gubitosi, Aldo Bisio and Giovanni Ferigo – respectively CEO of Tim, Vodafone and Inwit presented the operation by choosing the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome and it is no coincidence: Tim has joined the Amici dei Lincei association and Galileo, with his portrait, was present in the room. Industry too has its symbols and hopefully this is a prelude to a better technological future for the companies involved and above all for the country.
In fact, it is on this element that the three managers wanted to focus: the sharing of the transmission towers of the mobile network, just as the operators are called upon to make an enormous investment effort to create the new 5G network, will help "accelerate implementation times and to make the 5G network more widely available, reducing the digital divide in Italy” Aldo Bisio immediately specified.
For customers, the operation takes the form of a sort of intra-national roaming: Tim will manage active access to the signal in 10 Regions (including Piedmont), Vodafone will have another 10 (including Lombardy). The active signal (therefore the radio access that makes the service available) will be shared in all cities with fewer than 35.000 inhabitants, while in the larger metropolises the two partners reserve themselves greater freedom and will act exclusively "but that is not certain", he said added Bisio, suggesting that future developments are possible.
The numbers and financial technicalities: Vodafone will split its towers into a company equivalent to Inwit, the Vodafone TowerCo. Inwit will issue 360 million new shares for Vodafone and will pay in part with the new shares, in fact, and in part with 2,1 billion in debt. The bank loans are already ready (the credit line for 2,5 billion has already been granted) specified Luigi Gubitosi, underlining that the operation has collected interest on the loan three times as much as requested. An element that confirms the interest of the banks in supporting the project from which the first tower company in Italy will be born, the second in size in Europe.
The operation was designed in record time also in view of the fact that the two groups have equivalent assets: 11.000 towers each and this facilitated the agreement. Governance will be equal: 5 directors each for Tim and Vodafone, 3 for the minorities. The top management will be appointed jointly. The partners are bound by a three-year shareholders' agreement and lock-up and stand still agreements. The capital share may decrease to 25% each.
Gubitosi and Bisio's announcement suggests important new scenarios for Italy after years of controversy. The benefits in terms of Ebitda for Inwit will be 200 million by 2026, the savings for Tim and Vodafone will be equal to 800 million each in 2026. Furthermore, thanks to the operation Vodafone and Tim will reduce their debt; in Tim's case the forecast is 1,4 billion less.
The shares of Vodafone TowerCo will merge into the European Tower Society, announced in the morning by the Vodafone group, where the assets on the towers owned by the group in 10 countries in Europe will flow.
The Stock Exchange rewarded stocks on the Stock Exchange: Vodafone group with a 10% jump on the announcement of the TowerCo operation in the morning, Tim jumped to the top of the Ftse Mib with +3,7% at 0,516 euros at 16:08 on Friday afternoon.
Learn More: 5G smartphone, the new revolution. What changes, how it works, how much it costs. On FIRST Tutorials
