Rumours abounded this week that Spain’s Cellnex was working on a plan to buy into INWIT, Telecom Italia’s towers business, but the reports appear to have been false.
The towers specialist told Reuters on Thursday that it is not involved in a deal to acquire a stake in Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane (INWIT).
The confirmation came after Bloomberg reported that Cellnex has held various meetings with INWIT in recent weeks and that one of the topics of discussion was Cellnex acquiring a 30% stake in the Italian company.
The newswire’s sources – unidentified people familiar with the matter – said talks were at an early stage and that the size of the stake could change.
The story was then picked up by numerous news outlets.
When asked by Reuters to comment on the reports, a Cellnex spokesman said the firm is always studying growth opportunities in Europe, but is not working on anything specific with INWIT.
Cellnex, which was spun out of Abertis and adopted its current name earlier this year, has already brokered one Italian towers deal in recent months, acquiring the bulk of Wind’s mobile towers business for €693 million in March.
INWIT, meanwhile, was floated by Telecom Italia this summer. The Italian incumbent sold a 40% stake in the company, which started trading on the Borsa Italiana in June. Its IPO raised a total of €875.3 million, including an overallotment option.
