News
Wind chief executive Maximo Ibarra to lead venture’ 3 Italia CEO Vincenzo Novari takes on advisory role.
CK Hutchison and VimpelCom this week completed the merger of their Italian operations, creating an integrated telco serving 31 million mobile customers and 2.7 million fixed-line users.
The new joint venture will be led by current Wind CEO Maximo Ibarra, while 3 Italia’s finance chief Stefano Invernizzi will serve as CFO. Dina Ravera, 3 Italia’s COO, has been appointed merger integration officer.
Meanwhile, 3 Italia CEO Vincenzo Novari has been appointed as a special advisor to CK Hutchison.
"Not only will the transaction create a strong new competitor in the Italian market, it will also provide significant additional investment to drive development of Italy’s digital infrastructure. This will bring benefits to businesses and consumers across Italy – through greater reliability, coverage and speed – whilst ensuring Italy remains at the cutting edge of the global digital economy," said Canning Fok, co-managing director of CK Hutchison, in a statement on Monday.
"The merged business, its management team and governance are ready to launch a new era of telecommunications services in Italy. Customers will see real benefits in terms of call quality and strengthened data services as soon as 2017, as the two companies integrate their networks and combine their engineering prowess," added Jean-Yves Charlier, CEO of VimpelCom.
"The new company looks forward to delivering on the €700 million run-rate of annualised opex and capex synergies that the transaction will bring," he said.
The €21.8 billion combination of Wind and 3 Italia will also usher in a new era for France’s Iliad, which agreed to acquire spectrum and base stations divested by the new joint venture as part of a package of remedies offered in return for the European Commission’s approval for the deal.
According to a report last week by Reuters, Iliad has been in recent contact with utility firm Enel, which is planning to build a wholesale fibre network across Italy. The report suggested that Iliad may be considering offering high-speed fixed broadband in addition to mobile services when it eventually launches.
"There has been some contact … They are in a process of deciding what they want to do," said Enel CEO Francesco Starace, in the report.
