MILAN/ROME (Reuters) – The Italian Treasury and the Spanish fund Asterion have presented a joint firm offer of 700 million euros for Sparkle, the submarine cables division of Telecom Italia (TIM), the Italian ministry and the telecommunications group.
The Treasury is making this offer jointly with Retelit, an Italian fiber optic network operator owned by the Spanish infrastructure financing fund Asterion.
The offer is valid until Jan. 27, TIM and the Treasury said in separate statements.
“The deal would give TIM additional resources to reorganize its business and reduce debt, without affecting its cash generation profile,” broker Intermonte said in a note.
Rome wants to secure control of Sparkle, which it considers strategic because of its network of 600,000 km of cables which transmit information between the countries of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Americas.
TIM has scheduled a meeting of its board of directors for Friday to begin reviewing the offer, according to people familiar with the matter.
If the sale goes through, Treasury is expected to retain a roughly 70% stake in Sparkle, with the remainder held by Asterion.
TIM concluded the sale of its fixed network to the American fund KKR at the beginning of July, as part of an operation worth 22 billion euros supported by the Italian government, which acquired a 16% stake.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Elvira Pollina, French version by Diana Mandia, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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