Wind Telecomunicazioni has picked Abertis Telecom Terrestre (ATT), the tower unit of Spanish infrastructure company Abertis, as the preferred bidder for its tower portfolio.
In a statement, Abertis said that negotiations between the two parties will…
Wind Telecomunicazioni has picked Abertis Telecom Terrestre (ATT), the tower unit of Spanish infrastructure company Abertis, as the preferred bidder for its tower portfolio.
In a statement, Abertis said that negotiations between the two parties will continue until mid-February.
VimpelCom-owned Wind, Italy’s third-largest carrier, is looking to sell around 7,000 towers worth an estimated €800m to reduce its debt burden, which stood at nearly €10bn as of 30 September 2014.
HSBC and Banca Imi are reportedly advising Wind on the sale.
Other candidates for the assets included Mediaset-controlled EI Towers, as well as Italian infrastructure fund F2i, which had submitted a binding offer with Providence Equity Partners.
One of the interested parties, American Tower, reportedly pulled out of the bid.
Last October, Abertis said it would list its towers on the Madrid stock exchange in the first half of 2015.
If the deal goes through, it will be its second Italian acquisition in less than a year. Last May, the company acquired TowerCo, which operates mobile telecoms towers on toll roads in Italy, from Italian motorway operator Atlantia for €94.6m.
