Touch-ups only
As expected, the new offers from Cdp and Macquarie on one side and Kkr on the other for the Tim network have arrived but only provide for small changes compared to the latest proposals always non binding, which were rejected by the incumbent’s board of directors. For the Italian-Australian consortium which also participates in Open Fiber (60-40%) the real news concerns the path shared with Tim to solve the problems rather than the final price which should not differ significantly from the 19.3 billion already put on the table Antitrsut with the remedies that would be asked of him by the European authority for the investment in two assets (NetCo and Open Fiber) in competition with each other.
Even the American fund had leaked that the latest offer was the one considered fair with respect to the value of the infrastructure brought as a dowry by Tim and that there would be no major raises. And in fact, compared to the previous 21 billion, small measures would have arrived, ranging between 200 and 500 with a more substantial cut of the debt that would remain on the shoulders of ServiceCo which would therefore become more sustainable. In short, we are very far from the well-known requests of Vivendi. The practically official ones, equal to 31 billion euros, and those that we could define as unofficial, which would see the French shareholder ready to evaluate proposals between 25 and 26 billion.
May 4th communiquƩ
At this point it is worth recalling that in a sibylline communicated on 4 May, Tim’s Board of Directors had defined the offers received as “inadequate” and “therefore, considering the willingness expressed by at least one of the bidders to improve it”, had deemed it “of probe this availability, in order to obtain a final offerā by 9 June. The availability was that of Kkr and even now the proposal of the American fund seems to be the one destined to arouse Tim’s greatest attention. It should also be remembered that the hypothesis of the so-called large crowd remains in the background: Kkr, Cdp and the F2i infrastructure fund led by Renato Ravanelli who would have made a more substantial offer for the network. With government approval. But Macquarie has sent a letter to the Italian shareholder Cdp to warn him against going ahead with the operation alone.
Related parties committee
Now what happens? The ball passes into the hands of the related parties committee which will examine the two new offers to then present its investigation to the board of directors which has already scheduled two meetings. The first, that of June 19, should be interlocutory, while the second, convened for the 22nd, should instead pronounce. At this point, the board meeting on the 14th called for the co-option of the missing director after the resignation of the CEO of Vivendi Arnaud de Puyfontaine becomes even more important. The French have mentioned the name of Leonardo’s former president Luciano Carta. And given the great balance, or rather the split in two of the Board, the vote and the presence of the Charter could be decisive.
Headhunter in action
The head hunter who is continuing the search for alternative names will most likely bring two more names to the presence of the board of 14. We will see the thickness and above all we will see who has agreed to join a board that expires at the end of the year and in opposition to the first shareholder. In short, just enough time to go into the details of the new offers that we will go back to discussing the co-optation of Carta while yesterday the share closed practically unchanged just above 0.25 cents. A value equal to less than half of the offer put on the table but then never actually presented by Kkr for all of Tim at 0.505 euros per share. But that’s another story.