Incumbent Telecom Italia (BIT:TIT) is open to an approach for its tower spin-off Inwit (BIT:INW), CEO Marco Patuano has said.
Incumbent Telecom Italia (BIT:TIT) is open to an approach for its tower spin-off Inwit (BIT:INW), CEO Marco Patuano has said.
Acknowledging “strong interest” in the unit, he told Reuters that there was however no formal offer in place, and no formal communication with Spanish counterpart Cellnex Telecom (BME:CLNX). Itself a tower spin-off created this year, the Spanish-owned group was last week reported to be preparing a bid for Inwit.
Noting that the telco’s board would discuss options later this week, Patuano said Inwit had been built to be “financially very light” in order to give his company as many options as possible.
In June, Telecom Italia listed 40% of Inwit, raising €875.3m. At the time, Patuano said the tower unit would look to expand via M&A.
He did not dismiss a potential deal with either Cellnex, which earlier this year acquired 7,377 towers from Italian cellco Wind Telecomunicazioni, or state-owned broadcasting towerco Rai Way.
Earlier this year, Rai Way also signalled interest in a tie-up with Inwit, after turning down a takeover offer from Mediaset-
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and CaixaBank ran the Cellnex IPO, while Banca IMI, Deutsche Bank and Mediobanca listed Inwit.