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Green light from the Government, for the purposes of golden power, to the sale of the Telecom network. Tim itself announced this before the stock market opening. «The authorization provision, with which the Council of Ministers exercised the special powers in the sole form of prescriptions – we read in the note – made its own the commitments presented during the procedure. These are commitments deemed by the Government to be fully suitable to guarantee the protection of the strategic interests connected to the assets involved in the operation”.
In essence, the security requirements follow the strategic asset that will be spun off into an ad hoc company, Netco, which will pass from the incumbent to the consortium led by the US fund KKR as established by the contract signed on 6 November, following the decision of the Tim’s board of directors to sell the network.
The Treasury will participate in Netco’s capital with 20% and governance prerogatives that have already been agreed between the parties and which assign the public shareholder de facto a “qualified minority”.
Also in the pipeline is the fund created specifically by F2i to acquire another 10% of Netco, subscribed by banking foundations and social security institutions.
For its part, Palazzo Chigi underlined with a note that the operation is proceeding as per the roadmap, the closing is expected by the summer. «The green light with requirements from the Italian Government for the sale of the TIM network to the US infrastructure fund KKR represents a further and fundamental step in the acquisition of NetCo (a company that substantially holds all of TIM’s fixed network infrastructure), a protection of the national interest and to guarantee state control over the strategic assets of the primary telecommunications network – we read in the note – A role for the Government in defining strategic choices is envisaged, all essential safeguards are ensured and state supervision of all is guaranteed aspects relating to the security, defense and strategic nature of the network and related assets. The resolution of the Council of Ministers incorporates into the provisions the commitments that the parties have undertaken starting from the creation of the security organisation, from the appointment of the person in charge of Italian citizenship, from the exclusive competence over all issues affecting strategic assets, from the maintenance in Italy of research and maintenance activities, and monitoring”. «A certain framework of strategic supervision entrusted to the State is therefore emerging. An important step forward in the overall definition of the operation, which proceeds according to the announced timelines.”