Yesterday evening, TIM’s Board of Directors announced that it had convened a new meeting for February 24 to evaluate the offer of KKR, assisted by JPM, MS and Citi. TIM said it was open to evaluating alternative offers that should materialize in the meantime and to continue the dialogue with all stakeholders.
Press articles indicate that KKR’s offer would be valid until February 28 and that it would have a valuation for the asset of around 20 billion plus some potential earn-outs. Only MF goes so far as to hypothesize a decidedly higher value (27bn) assuming that KKR does not include the value of FiberCop’s minorities.
All press sources, underlines Equita, agree in the belief that the alternative offer from CDP/Macquarie could also materialize between now and the end of the month.
TIM’s negotiating position is therefore stronger today, having an interesting back-up from KKR and a possible offer arriving from CDP/Macquarie, with greater execution complexities (greater antitrust risk) but greater synergies to be developed (establishment of a national) and more responsive to the government’s desire to have state control over the network asset. “Compared to our current valuation, underlines Equita, the sale of 100% of NetCo at 20 billion would imply a group valuation of around 46 cents”. On the stock exchange, Tim shares are currently up 0.14% at 0.29 euros per share.