Italian regulator Consob has told local towerco EI Towers that its recently revised €1.2bn (US$1.3bn) bid for state-owned rival Rai Way cannot proceed in its current form.
EI Towers agreed on Friday to reduce the minimum stake threshold for its offer…
Italian regulator Consob has told local towerco EI Towers that its recently revised €1.2bn (US$1.3bn) bid for state-owned rival Rai Way cannot proceed in its current form.
EI Towers agreed on Friday to reduce the minimum stake threshold for its offer from 66.67% to 40%, after the state said it must retain a 51% stake because of its strategic importance.
However, Consob said today that the group would have to file a new offer document for the amended bid to be considered.
EI Towers launched its cash-and-stock offer for a minimum two-thirds of Rai Way in February with the aim of creating a national infrastructure player. State broadcaster Rai, which holds 65.07% of Rai Way, also described the previous offer as “inadmissible”.
After agreeing to lower the threshold, EI Towers said all other conditions of its original offer would remain unchanged. It reiterated that the bid is not “hostile” and is based on an industrial plan that in its view could benefit both operators.
The company, which is 40% owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Elettronica Industriale, a subsidiary of the Mediaset group, also reserved the right to amend any other terms in the future.
In a letter to Consob attached to a press statement, EI Towers claimed that it had no obligation to reduce the minimum threshold for its bid, since “there is no law requiring that 51% of the share capital of Rai Way remains under the control of the public sector”.
A number of commentators have suggested that the main obstacle to the deal is political, which was the case in 2001, when the then Berlusconi-led government shot down an attempt by US towerco Crown Castle to buy 49% of the group for US$380m.
As well as well as terrestrial and fibre networks, Rai Way provides a free satellite platform called tivùsat that uses Eutelsat Hot Bird 9 at 13E.
