Telecom Italia (TI) CEO Marco Patuano and Vivendi chairman Vincent Bollore are reportedly set to meet shortly to discuss an offer for the French media group’s Brazilian fixed-line unit GVT.
The executives will meet in Paris either today or tomorrow,…
Telecom Italia (TI) CEO Marco Patuano and Vivendi chairman Vincent Bollore are reportedly set to meet shortly to discuss an offer for the French media group’s Brazilian fixed-line unit GVT.
The executives will meet in Paris either today or tomorrow, but a formal offer is not expected before Vivendi’s 28 August board meeting, reported Reuters citing a source with knowledge of the matter.
The Italian incumbent has reportedly hired Citigroup, Mediobanca and Banco Bradesco to advise on its planned acquisition of GVT.
The plan, which would see TI buy GVT in return for selling a stake in itself to Vivendi, could be finalised within the next few weeks, the newswire reported earlier.
Both TI and Vivendi have declined to comment on the matter.
The two companies are said to have begun discussing the subject before Spain’s Telefonica, the Italian telco’s largest individual shareholder, made its €6.7bn (US$9bn) offer for GVT early last week.
Telefonica’s plan to buy GVT would see Vivendi acquire the Spanish incumbent’s 8.3% stake in TI once the deal has closed. The Madrid-based telco has reportedly mandated JP Morgan for the planned acquisition.
Also last week, Patuano told analysts during a conference call that TI would assess all options for its Brazilian mobile asset TIM Brasil but not make “crazy offers”. He also noted that TI has not ruled out a merger between TIM Brasil and GVT.
TI announced yesterday that it and US investment firm Fintech have agreed to extend the completion deadline for the US$960m sale of its controlling stake in Telecom Argentina to 1 September.