(Finance) – The government is trying to square up on the single network front. Approaches for the Telecom Italy file the deadline set by the government at 31 December for the definition of the best market solutions. Tomorrow, in the fourth and last of the meetings of the open table at Palazzo Chigi in which they also participate Vivendi and Cdp Equity, one should sum up.
The goal of undersecretary to the presidency Alessio Butti and gods ministers Adolfo Urso and Giancarlo Giorgetti is to arrive by that date at a solution to define the contours of a national network under public control and not vertically integrated, within whose perimeter also Sparkle should be included, given the sensitivity and relevance for national security of the telecommunications backbone. The roads still seem all open, starting with the sale of the network to one or more entities under state control, with the split of Tim: infrastructure on one side (Cdp) and services on the other (Vivendi). Then the names of Invitalia circulated, but also of Poste and Fs and on the institutional investors front, as well as Kkr, Macquarie (already a shareholder of Open Fiber) and Gip.
In recent days Arnaud de Puyfontaine, CEO of Vivendi, he made it known that he is “grateful to this Government and in particular to Mimit and Minister Urso, and to the other competent departments, for having created the conditions and a serene and constructive climate that accompanies the work of the tables between the Government and the majority shareholders of Tim” to “find a shared solution that responds to the Government’s targets and satisfies all the stakeholders in the country’s interest for a national telecommunications network. This climate – he says de Puyfontaine after the three technical meetings that took place at the Ministry led by Urso – it is preparatory to consider other investments in Italy that can seal the partnership between Italy and France”.
On the table remain, however, two main nodes. The first concerns the title which – as noted by Il Sole 24 Ore – is still far from the 65 cents which represent the carrying price of Vivendi which had paid out 3.9 billion for its share having bought them at 1.07 euros. And even the 86 cents of CDP, later rectified to 65, are far away. The second question concerns the debt. According to the simulations which – as reconstructed in recent days by the Sole 24 Ore would have been made during the last table – sustainability would be achieved with “a debt of up to 10 billion on the NetCo and around 4 billion for the services part” but “Tim’s gross debt weighs 25 billion on the group’s accounts, a figure that drops to 20.1 billion if you look at the net value”.
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