Cdp offers Tim an alternative to Kkr. The board of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti has given the green light to Cdp Equity to send a non-binding offer, jointly with Macquarie Asset Management, for the purchase of the newly established NetCo, which will include the infrastructure network and the stake in Sparkle. The proposal should arrive by the hour on the table of the president of Tim Salvatore Rossi and has already been announced will be valid until March 31st.
According to rumors, the non-binding offer by Cdp and Macquarie improves, as Tim’s board of directors had pushed to do, the one presented in February by Kkr; there are still 20 billion on the plate but with different conditions that would bring more liquidity to Tim. Kkr’s proposal in fact, it is structured, approximately, on 10 billion of debt and 10 of equity (so much would Fibercop be valued in which the American fund invested 1.8 billion two years ago, winning 37.5%). The Cassa would offer more cash, up to 10 billion, and then 8 billion of debt plus an earn-out of 2 billion which would be paid upon the fulfillment of certain conditions.
However, both proposals remain far from the 31 billion of evaluations by Vivendithe clash could thus be moved to the shareholders’ meeting and there, at the count, the vote of the funds and therefore of the market would be decisive.
When the Kkr offer arrived, the Stock Exchange had expressed itself in favor and had instead shown caution on a possible intervention by the CDP due to the major issue represented by the remedies that the Antitrust could impose and which could impact on the employment perimeter. Cdp, which is a shareholder with 9.8% of Tim, with Macquarie controls Open Fiber, respectively 60% through Cdp Equity and 40% through Fiber Networks Holdings, the main competitor of the telephone group at least on fiber.
The same CEO of Cdp Equity, Francesco Mele, had admitted the difficulties adding that beyond the “technical aspects to be clarified” he was ready to “evaluate and do everything possible” to proceed. It was Mele himself who then opened a collaboration with Kkr. “We have relationships with everyone – said Mele – and we like working with other investors, therefore also with Kkr”. Even the road that opens up to the American fund also has obstacles, first of all it must defuse the Golden Power, the special powers with which the Government can veto or restrict foreign investment in strategic Italian companies. Hence the hypothesis of a negotiation that leads to aligning everyone’s interests.