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According to media sources, the sale could net TIM around €1.4 billion
At the end of January, TIM announced that it had appointed previous head of Tim Brasil, Pietro Labriola, as its new CEO, replacing the outgoing Luigi Gubitosi who stepped down late last year.
With struggling financials and facing a €10.8 billion takeover offer from KKR, Labriola had his work cut out for him and quickly set about preparing a plan to help stabilise the company and avoid a sale.
The plan, which was seemingly well received by the TIM Board of Directors, reportedly included spinning off the company’s fixed line infrastructure in an effort to maximise the value of the company’s existing assets. It has since been reported that the plan could also engender significant job cuts.
Now, it seems that Labriola’s plan to turn TIM’s fortunes around could include additional measures to shore up the company’s books.
According to a report from La Repubblica, one such measure could be for TIM to sell its indirectly owned stake in tower company INWIT, with advanced discussions already underway with fellow investor Ardian.
Currently, 30% of INWIT is owned by a group called holding company called Daphne, which is in turn 51% owned by TIM. French investment fund Ardian purchased the remaining 49% of Daphne back in 2020.
In the same year, INWIT was merged with Vodafone’s tower assets, with Vodafone taking 33.2% INWIT.
According to analyst estimations, TIM’s sale of this roughly 15.1% stake in INWIT could potentially be worth around €1.4 billion.
INWIT is currently the second largest tower operator in Europe by number of managed sites, with over 22,000 towers across Italy.
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