It's not yet Opa, but the countdown has started and the truth will soon be known, namely if the KKR project may or may not translate into a real takeover bid on 100% of Tim's shares, the largest telephone company in Italy.
A very strong indication of the American fund's intention not to give up and to launch the offer on Tim as soon as possible came yesterday from JP Morgan bank what was said ready to finance the takeover bid: only serves, as he recalled this morning the Republic, "a light due diligence to confirm the industrial plan and justify the premium on the price offered".
However, he must first decide on the feasibility of the operation Tim's Committee of Independent Directors, chaired by Salvatore Rossi, who does not intend to waste time and could soon appoint Lazard and Rothschild as advisors. Then, of course, it will be the Draghi government that will assess compliance with the three conditions that the premier has indicated as binding to give the green light to the takeover bid: network security, technologies and the defense of employment.
The unions they worry about the fate of Tim's 40 jobs but just the stew, that is the separation agreed between Tim's network and services, could disassemble the vertically integrated group that is the incumbent today, pave the way for the single network in the form also appreciated by the European Antitrust and, in this way, give Tim a safer future by guaranteeing jobs – partly in the network and partly in services. We will see.
