Tim’s CEO, Luigi Gubitosi, is ready to relinquish control of the Telecom Italia network, an asset worth billions of euros, to relaunch the agreement with Open Fiber on the creation of a single network company. Bloomberg writes, explaining that the revised merger plan comes in the wake of pressure from the government, which has so far halted the project, given that the previous version of the agreement would have brought telecommunications back to a near-monopoly. The new version of the plan developed by Tim also aims to address concerns from the EU Commission that integration with Open Fiber could hinder competition.
In the plans, Tim would retain a minority stake in the new company that would arise from the marriage between FiberCop (secondary network) and Open Fiber. According to the investment houses, this development would be positive for Tim because it would increase the probability of an agreement on the asset and would allow Tim to deconsolidate FiberCop with a benefit in terms of both debt and capex and would facilitate a further agreement that would contemplate the contribution of all landline in the new entity.
Tim’s change of position, which has so far always reiterated its desire to maintain control of the infrastructure, could also change the scenario in view of the November 11 board of directors requested by Vivendi and some independent directors to put their hands on a reorganization of the business. Vivendi, after the quarterly, had leaked his dissatisfaction with company numbers.