Italtel could, or rather should have been the Italian Huawei. Instead, he was the Italian champion of infrastructures for telephone networks, which he created the electronic control units and then the IP networks has had a troubled path by changing various shareholding structures since, in 2000, Telecom sold the company to a US fund and to the US infrastructure giant for web development, Cisco.
The company was a leader in telecommunications network equipment before the arrival of Chinese competitors
A long ordeal that drastically reduced the company. It should be underlined that its gigantic switching “cabinets” for telecommunications, who were leaders in the world market in the 90s, they are exhibited (as well as hypercopied) in the network equipment museum set up by the industry giant Huawei in its headquarters in Shenzen, China. Now, after belonging to funds, following the (failed) attempt at a relaunch by Exprivia and then PSC, Italtel, which owns technology and patents in IP, 5G and the cloud, has found a new dominus, Nextalia.
Nextalia also wants to relaunch the PSC group which holds 54% of Italtel
In reality, regarding the last step, Italtel is not at fault. In fact, it was the PSC group of the Pesce family who brought the books to court, wanting to become a champion in the field of the creation of technological systems for large-scale works. Nextalia, led by Francesco Canzonieri, had made its binding proposal to intervene in the composition with creditors in November, which was accepted by the creditors of the PSC group.
With this operation, the Nextalia fund has the dual objective of restructuring and relaunching the PSC Group, focusing on its distinctive skills and, at the same time, accompanying Italtel on its growth and consolidation path. “We are very happy with Nextalia’s interest in Italtel – said Italtel CEO Benedetto Di Salvo -. It is a confirmation of the results we have achieved with the plan of transformation started two years ago. Nextalia will allow us to further accelerate growth and consolidate our leadership in supporting the digitalisation of companies and public administrations.” Nextalia moved together with its institutional investors such as Intesa Sanpaolo, UnipolSai Assicurazioni, Fondazione Enpam, Istituto Atesino di Sviluppo, Confindustria, Coldiretti and Micheli Associati. The agreement will be executed subject to approval by the Court in accordance with the legal procedures and the provisions of the hiring proposal.
The company wants to be a reference player for corporate restructuring
“The initiative promoted is important in the national panorama of company restructuring, we want to consolidate Nextalia’s role as a reference institutional player in this segment – said Canzonieri, CEO of Nextalia -. In the coming months we will relaunch Gruppo Psc and reposition the company in the main market segments. Our fund will directly control Italtel, a historic company and example of Italian excellence, which will be able to leverage Nextalia’s network and strategic vision to consolidate its growth path.”
Francesco Micheli is the president of Nextalia
Italtel is expected to release its 2023 results at the end of March. The company, which today works as a system integrator especially for companies, will be owned not only by Nextalia (54%) which takes over from PSC but also by Classidra fund at 28% from Tim at 18%, has around 1300 in Italy (800) and abroad with a turnover of 260 million in 2022. For Italtel this could be the right time. In fact, the president of Nextalia is Francesco Micheli who has an impressive series of successes in the launch and relaunch of hi-tech companies.