Tim's Extraordinary Board “acknowledged the intention of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP (“KKR"), in the "non-binding and indicative" status ("non-binding and indicative"), to carry out a possible transaction on TIM shares through anpublic purchase offer on 100% of the shares ordinary and savings shares of the Company, aimed at the delisting (the "Expression of Interest”)”. Indicative price proposed by the American fund, entirely in cash: 50,5 cents per share against the 34,65 cents reached by the telephone company on the Stock Exchange last Friday, pushed upwards by rumors and expectations on ongoing operations on the stock. At the end of the operation, if it goes through, the delisting is envisaged.
Tim's press release arrives on the evening of Sunday 21 November, after about 4 hours of board meetings, and removes any uncertainty about the rumors and anticipations that have been chasing each other for a few days. The Fund Kkr, the US finance giant with 400 billion dollars under management, has already invested 1,8 billion in FiberCop (58% controlled by Tim), the company for the fiber network in which Fastweb and Tiscali have also entered.
Now he has returned to office with an expression of interest which, the press release released by Tim specifies, is "based on information in the public domain and would be subject to the condition of achieving the minimum membership threshold of 51% of the share capital of both share categories.”
The US Fund KKr presented its proposal to the Tim Board of Directors as "friendly" and aimed at obtaining the consent of the directors and the support of the management. The Americans make it conditional on carrying out a confirmatory due diligence lasting four weeks but above all on the approval of the government which could challenge the "golden power" in defense of an asset considered strategic.
Countless scenarios are now opening up, all open. On the one hand, Vincent Bolloré, Tim's main shareholder through Vivendi with a 23,5% stake it could move with a counter-agreement both to raise the price of the takeover bid and to keep an asset paid for much more than what Kkr offers. In this regard, there is talk of contacts with Vivendi with the CVC fund and with the advice of Tim's ex CEO, Marco Patuano.
Another scenario could be to bring the various protagonists of the dispute over Tim to a table, first of all Deposits and Loans Fund. CDP has a 10% stake and has become the controlling shareholder of Open Fiber, the optical fiber company from which Enel left leaving 40% to the Macquarie fund. One could thus profile a return of the state aimed at controlling the fiber network (something similar to the Terna model?) and the so-called primary network of Tim (the last mile in copper) as well as Sparkle (connections with foreign countries). An operation on which however, Europe will also be vigilant: the EU, just in recent days, has given the green light to the reorganization of the Open Fiber capital as long as we are not talking about a single network under Tim's control. The games are therefore more open than ever.
