Everything moves in the tower game. Mediaset acknowledges the Government's intention to keep 51% of the Rai towers in public hands and the consequent impediment verdict by Consob and revises downwards the takeover bid launched by its Ei Towers on Rai Way: would settle for 40% and no more than 66,67%. But the novelty is represented by the acceleration of Telecom Italia for the quotation of its towers.
In Week Telecom Italy, at the behest of its CEO Marco Patuano, will present to the banks the plan to list its towers collected in the subsidiary by June Inwit, to which the 11.519 Telecom antennas for mobile signal transmission were transferred on April XNUMXst.
The basic idea is to bring 40% of Inwit to the Stock Exchange and a minority stake in the holding which would be positioned between the parent company and Inwit itself, replicating the scheme adopted by Cdp Reti for Terna and Snam. Market rumors speak of an interest already expressed by a sovereign wealth fund for the possible sale of the holding company which should control the Telecom Italia towers.
Telecom values Inwit at 1,6-1,7 billion euros according to multiples much higher than those of Rai Way because it believes that transmission towers are worth more than television towers and constitute the future of communication. Abertis made similar reasoning in Spain, which will soon list its towers on the Madrid Stock Exchange and which will also represent an important test for Telecom Italia.
Meanwhile, after the Government's repeatedly reaffirmed intention to keep control of the Rai towers in public hands and the consequent verdict by Consob, Ei Towers has corrected its plan and revised downwards the public takeover bid on Rai Way which had sparked many political disputes.
The company controlled by Mediaset would be content to take over 40% of Rai Way in part by raking up the shares on the market and in part by convincing Rai to sell part of the shares still in its possession for which Ei Towers remains willing to offer 4,5 euro per share compared to the current stock market price which is 4,2 euro.
With the new offer, partly in cash and partly in shares, the merger plans between Ray Wai and Ed Towers are moving away but this does not exclude the possibility of industrial collaboration. Now, however, the word goes back to Consob which has a week to authorize or not the new Mediaset offer that had heated up both politics and the market.
