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The British private equity fund is one of numerous suitors showing interest in TIM’s enterprise service unit, which could be separated from TIM’s infrastructure unit as part of a proposed company restructure
In November last year, US investment fund KKR approached Italy’s largest operator TIM with a takeover bid worth €10.8 billion. Since then, TIM has been mulling over its response, with CEO Luigi Gubitosi stepping down in an attempt to accelerate the company’s response to the bid.
However, in January TIM announced that they had appointed the CEO of TIM Brasil, Pietro Labriola, as Group CEO, and he brought with him a plan to help fend off KKR’s takeover approach. This plan included spinning off the company’s fibre infrastructure into a separate unit called ‘NetCo’, potentially opening the door for a government-backed merger with Open Fiber to create a national Italian fibre network.
Nonetheless, earlier this month TIM announced that formal talks were beginning with KKR about the potential takeover.
KKR had indicated that it remained interested in takeover talks, as well as discussing TIM’s plans to potentially combine its fixed line assets with those of Open Fiber.
But KKR is not the only investor who has expressed interest in purchasing piece of TIM.
British investment firm CVC has announced that it has submitted a non-binding proposal to TIM for the acquisition of a stake up to 49% in TIM’s enterprise services arm. According to sources, CVC would seek to spin off the entity, focussing on enterprise communications, cloud technology, and the IoT.
The deal would also include TIM’s related subsidiaries, such as Noovle, Olivetti, Telsy and Trust Technologies.
Analysts suggest, TIM’s enterprise service business could be worth up to €10.5 billion.
With pieces of TIM seemingly up for grabs, additional interest is reportedly being received from other private equity firms, including Apollo Global Management, though official offers have not been announced.
TIM will reportedly consider both CVC’s offer and that of KKR tomorrow.
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