Telecom Italia’s mobile towers unit INWIT announced on Thursday that it has secured regulatory approval for an IPO that could raise almost €1 billion for its telco parent.
INWIT, or Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane, said that Italian stock market regulator has given the green li ght to its IPO prospectus and its plan to list on the Borsa Italiana’s Mercato Telematico Azionario (MTA). The Borsa Italiana has already given its approval to the move.
As such, its public offering will run from 8 June-17 June, while the sale for institutional investors will open on 5 June.
The announcement came shortly after Telecom Italia revealed a price range for the IPO that values INWIT at up to €2.34 billion. With the telco looking to sell as much as 40% of the towers unit, it could raise €936 million from the flotation.
With a price range of €3.25-€3.90 per share, INWIT’s theoretical minimum valuation stands at €1.95 billion. However, Telecom Italia explained that while the minimum price for the unit is non-binding, the maximum price is fixed.
Under the terms of the offering, Telecom Italia plans to sell 36.33% of INWIT; 10.9% of the shares will be made available to public investors, with the remainder allocated to institutional investors.
However, the telco is also expected to grant an overallotment option that would allow the IPO’s underwriters to acquire up to 10% of INWIT’s shares. Should that greenshoe option be fully taken up, the number of shares available to investors would fall, since the share sale is capped at 40%.
Telecom Italia revealed its plans to float INWIT last month. At the time it pointed out that the business had control of around 11,500 towers in Italy as of the end of 2014.
