Telecom Italia’s tower spin-off Inwit aims to expand via M&A after completing its listing process, TI CEO Marco Patuano told reporters.
Speaking at the IPO launch’s press conference yesterday, Patuano said the company will mainly target telecom…
Telecom Italia’s tower spin-off Inwit aims to expand via M&A after completing its listing process, TI CEO Marco Patuano told reporters.
Speaking at the IPO launch’s press conference yesterday, Patuano said the company will mainly target telecom tower operators. However, he did not rule out expanding into the broadcasting sector, if the right opportunity arose.
He added that a number of Italian and foreign infrastructure operators have expressed an interest in Inwit, which aims to become Italy’s largest towerco by playing a leading role in consolidation.
“If there are different opportunities, we will review them, but the telecoms towers are our main target. In this regard, we are very interested in the Italian market”, Patuano said.
The CEO did not dismiss a potential deal with Abertis’ tower unit Cellnex Telecom, which last month debuted on the Madrid stock exchange after acquiring 7,377 towers from Italian cellco Wind Telecomunicazioni, or with state-owned broadcasting towerco Rai Way.
In the past months, listed Rai Way publicly showed an interest in a tie-up with Inwit, after turning down a takeover offer from Mediaset-controlled EI Towers.
Telecom Italia will list up to 40% of Inwit on the Milan Bourse in a public offering that should fetch over €900m. Inwit’s price range has been set at between €3.25 and €3.90 per share, valuing the company at up to €2.34bn.
However, Patuano said that TI could reduce its stake to less than 50%, provided that the incumbent continues to be part of the towerco’s board.
“We are interested in maintaining a business link [with Inwit], not a controlling position,” Patuano pointed out.
Proceeds from the offering will mainly be used to reduce TI’s debt burden and speed up nationwide fibre deployment for both fixed and mobile applications, the CEO said.
The telco recently said it would increase its FTTH investment for 40 Italian cities from an initial €500m to €650-700m, in line with the government’s recently-launched high-speed broadband plan.
Banca IMI, Deutsche Bank and Mediobanca are acting as global joint coordinators and joint bookrunners on the IPO, while UBS is serving as joint bookrunner.
