Another month for KKr’s offering
There was great expectation, it was in the air that something had to happen because the timing for a proposal from Cassa Depositi e Prestiti that competed with that of Kkr on the Tim network was not ripe. And therefore in all likelihood on the February 24 board meeting on Tim’s plate there would have been only one offer and not two as hoped. Thus Tim’s communication did not take everyone by surprise who, late in the evening, announced, with reference to the indicative and non-binding offer presented by the American fund on February 1st, that it received a letter from private equity extending the March 24 deadline from the previous February 28.
In particular, as indicated in the letter, the extension of the deadline is due to a request from the Government to have an additional four weeks to carry out a joint analysis of the public aspects of the transaction concerning the powers that the Government can exercise in the sector. Kkr confirmed its willingness to continue a constructive dialogue with Tim and to proceed with the due diligence activities.
The BoD of 24 February
Tim also confirms that the board of directors will still be held on February 24, 2023 to discuss the non-binding offer of Kkr and take the necessary decisions. What to expect soon? It is clear that this was also the way for the government to get out of the ford in which it had ended up with respect to the position of the CDP and the need in any case to have some form of public control over the network.
Too many antitrust difficulties and difficulties relating to the evaluation of Open Fiber, the optical fiber company controlled by CDP (60%) and the Macquarie fund (40%), which would be within the perimeter of the network. In short, the CDP in the end did not have the green light to present its own offer and so the government asked KKR to extend the terms of its offer.
It is possible that in the next Tim will grant Kkr the possibility of starting a sort of due diligence. It would be a historic turning point, given that the fund’s previous proposal for a total takeover bid on Tim had broken precisely with respect to the request to check the group’s accounts.