News
Cellnex and F2i seen making 5-per-share offer for Telecom Italia’s towers business, valuing it at 3 billion.
The Spanish-Italian partnership that has been tipped as the frontrunner to take over towers company INWIT is set to table a higher offer than the one it has already submitted, it emerged on Thursday.
Cellnex and F2i will make a bid of €5 per share for a 45% stake in Telecom Italia’s towers business, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed sources. Final offers for the business are due in mid-March with Telecom Italia reportedly keen to close a sale by the end of June.
The new offer would value INWIT at €3 billion, while its current market value stands at €2.76 billion, it said.
The newswire named Cellnex/F2i as the most likely buyer for INWIT in January, despite the fact that its current €4.35-€4.50-per-share offer is lower than INWIT’s share price for much of the past few months.
Cellnex/F2i’s advantage comes from the fact that it is willing to buy 45% of INWIT. EI Towers, one of the other companies in the running to take over INWIT, has submitted an offer to buy just under 30% at around the €5-per-share mark, Reuters claimed earlier this year, while American Tower is also said to have submitted a bid.
Should Cellnex/F2i be successful, it would have to launch a mandatory takeover offer for the remainder of INWIT, as required by Italian law once the 30% ownership threshold is breached.
Telecom Italia currently holds around 60% of INWIT, having floated it last year.
