Italy’s Mediobanca is to sell its 1.6% stake in Telecom Italia by the end of June, it has said. Its stake is via holdco Telco, the break-up of which was cleared by Argentine competition officials last week.
Telco, whose shareholders are Telefonica,…
Italy’s Mediobanca is to sell its 1.6% stake in Telecom Italia by the end of June, it has said. Its stake is via holdco Telco, the break-up of which was cleared by Argentine competition officials last week.
Telco, whose shareholders are Telefonica, Generali, Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca, was set up in 2007 to fight a takeover of Telecom Italia by AT&T and America Movil. Telco currently holds 22.4% of the Italian group.
Following last week’s go-ahead, Telefonica transferred its 8.3% voting rights in Telecom Italia to French media group Vivendi, as part-payment for Brazilian cableco GVT, which it sold to the Spanish group for €7.5bn. This move meant the other three shareholders were free to sell their shares.
Vivendi, which is now the largest shareholder in the Italian telco, declined to comment on its likely interest in further stakes sold by Telco investors.
A spokesperson for Mediobanca declined to comment further.
An Intesa Sanpaolo spokesperson noted that that the retail bank had announced last year its plans to sell its own stake in the telco, as part of its 2014-2016 business plan. As part of that, the group has already sold stakes in both Generali and Pirelli. He declined to comment on the timing of a sale of the Telecom Italia stake, but said the company would only sell at a good price.
Generali declined comment.