La story between Tim and the American Kkr for now it stops here. Unless the situation changes, the board of directors of the communication company, which met today under the chairmanship of Salvatore Rossi, unanimously resolved not to deem it appropriate, at this stage, to follow up on the due diligence request.
After all, Peter Labriola, today confirmed as Chief Executive Officer of the Company, now has many other strings to his bow. First of all, his proposal to unpack the company's assets, an operation that could be finalized before the summer, has convinced several suitors to come forward. Furthermore, Tim has already taken formal steps towards the establishment of a single network with Open Fiber, confirmed the relaunch of activities in Brazil and the launch of 5G. All elements that have done well for the title.
Too many things have changed since the beginning of the story with KKR
On November 19, the American fund Kohlber Kravis Roberts & Co. LP. had submitted an indicative and non-binding expression of interest for Tim with a price of € 0,505 per share. On April 4, KKR stated that it was unable to confirm this interest due to the December profit warning after the announcement of lower than expected results for the 2021 financial year, the new guidance on the 2022-2024 strategic plan, also they are lower than expected (and significantly lower than the broker consensus for 2022) and the downgrade of rating agencies with a negative outlook.
Consequently, today the Board of Directors “resolved unanimously to not deem it appropriate, at this stage, follow up on the due diligence request,” a statement said. "Should KKR decide to present a concrete, complete and attractive offer (which contains, among other things, also an indication of the price per ordinary and savings share of Tim), the Board of Directors will be in a position to reconsider its decision in interest of all shareholders".
The suitors on the waiting list: the offers of CVC and Apax
Labriola, after taking the helm of Telecom Italia last December 17, announced in March that it wanted to abandon the vertically integrated group structure in favor of division into two separate entities, one for the network (NetCo) the other for services the ServCo in turn divided into Consumer and Enterprice. This was seen as much more attractive and interest from international private equity funds was not lacking.
Now in pole position are the offers from CVC and Apax. Apax, according to some observers, already has the ServCo asset dossier on its table. In 2008, the English fund, which specializes in telecommunications companies, had looked at the Wind dossier and in 2005, with Tpg, bought out Tim Hellas for a value of 1,1 billion euros. Tim's dossier is also closely observed by Iliad as a few months ago Apax had joined Iliad in the offer for 100% of Vodafone Italia.
In recent days, the non-binding offer of the international private equity fund CVC arrived for a maximum share of 49% of the business part, EnterpriseCo, which could include the digital companies Noovle (Cloud), Olivetti (IoT) and Telsy ( cyber security).
Furthermore, by the end of the month the single network project. At the request of Consob, Tim has recently announced that he has started negotiations with CDP Equity, the majority shareholder (60%) of Open Fiber, for the integration between the two networks.
Tim Brazil and 5G
Brazil remains Tim's flagship, with the acquisition of Oi's assets and the launch of 5G, as stated in the letter to the shareholders: "As regards the Brazilian activities, the improvement of our competitive capacity, write Rossi and Labriola, was achieved through the enrichment and greater value of our commercial offer which has led us to a strengthening both in terms of increasing the customer base and in terms of average revenue per user. The latter in particular has grown to a greater extent than its competitors. The approval by the Brazilian authorities of the operation which led Tim Brasil to acquire a significant part of the assets of the Oi group will lead to an increase in the customer base, which in turn will allow us to increase economies of scale and scope" .
“Further stimulus and growth will come from the launch of 5G and from further enhancement of the customer base built through dedicated partnerships, which will affect the banking and entertainment sectors” they conclude.
Tim's Shareholders' Meeting crowns Labriola
Tim's shareholders' meeting was also held today which approved the 2021 financial statements and crowned Pietro Labriola, General Manager of TIM, in the position of Director after he was co-opted and appointed Chief Executive Officer on 21 January. with 99,1% of the votes in favour. His mandate will cease together with that of the other directors with effect from the approval of the financial statements as at 31 December 2023.
At December 31, 2021, TIM closed with a net loss of 8,3 billion euros covered by the full use of retained earnings (equal to 7,3 billion euros) and a withdrawal from reserves of 956,7 million euros (94,54% votes in favour), said a statement from the company. The same was also approved the 2022-2024 stock option plan aimed at a part of the management holding decisive organizational positions for the purposes of the company business, while in the extraordinary session the shareholders also approved the issue of new ordinary shares to service the Stock Option Plan (81,62% votes in favour) consequently modifying the art. 5 of the Articles of Association on the share capital.
