Tim and Kkr have set July 1st as the date for the completion of the sale of the network (NetCo) to Optics Bidcothe vehicle participated by the US fund, from Canada pension plan investment board and from Abu Dhabi investment authority. The operation also includes the Ministry of Economy and F2i. Tim will cash in 18.8 billion (which could rise to 22 billion with the earn-out).
The operation at this stage “is irreversible” underlined the ceo by Tim, Pietro Labriolarecalling how the sale of the network «will allow us to reduce debt: we will no longer have those constraints that prevented us from competing with others player. Constraints that were anachronistic. Let’s become like other operators.”
Goodbye to Corso d’Italia
Result of the definitive separation and the need to take into account the economic and financial effects of the sale of the network the board of directors for the examination of the preliminary data as of June 30th has been set for July 31st and September 26th for the approval of the interim report.
On the same days of the closing Tim’s abandonment of the historic headquarters in Corso d’Italia will be completed with the employees splitting up among the other Roman offices. With this passage, which marks the end of an erai.e. the vertical integration between Tim’s network and services and the consequent regulatory constraints, will change the Italian scenario and will, in all likelihood, reopen a new risk for the much-invoked consolidation in telecommunications, as is happening in other countries.
Market equilibria
In the mobile, Tim Consumer without network, Iliad and WindTre will compete with Vodafone-Fastweb from the first quarter of 2025 and therefore, most likely, in these months the games will reopen. There have been talks between Iliad and Tim, as is normal between the two competitors, while there had already been some meetings between Poste and Tim in recent months. “On the front consumerwe believe – he writes in a reports Giorgio Tavolini from Intermonte – what a deal between Tim and PosteMobile would have lower antitrust risks than a combination with Iliad in terms of concentration and residential mobile market shares (Tim at 21.9%, PosteMobile at 5.9%, Iliad at 15.8%) and spectrum (PosteMobile is an MVNO operator
virtual, on the Vodafone network) and could guarantee interesting synergies from the optimization of the distribution network and value-added services offered today by PosteMobile, but Poste Italiane’s position on the strategy for valorising theassets».
The employment challenge
On the employment frontafter the Vodafone-Fastweb operation, which does not create particular problems, «the real consolidation in telecommunications, the most complex one, has yet to beginwill concern the piece consumer and there is a risk of having significant repercussions in terms of employment”, he explained Riccardo Sacconeformer national secretary of the Slc Cgil and recently elected general secretary of the trade union.
Pietro Labriola, CEO of Tim, for his part, has repeatedly defined consolidation in mobile is urgent, speaking of possible M&A, a scenario in which the company wants to play a leading role. Iliad, which had tried unsuccessfully to purchase Vodafone Italia, declared in turn that it wanted to proceed on its own path, but that it did not rule out seizing the M&A opportunities in the Italian market.
Antitrust scrutiny
All operations they will have to, as usual, pass under the Antitrust scrutiny: the EU commission, in giving the green light to the sale of Netco to KKR, effectively asked the Italian Antitrust to verify the MSA (the Master service agreement) between Tim Servizi and the network. Another antitrust profile would arise in the case of a merger between Netco and Open Fiber. In the new context, Agcom would be called upon to express its opinion on the new market scenarios in the next post-Netco market analysis. The operators, presumably, with one voice, explains an expert in the sector, will then ask regulatory relief and equal treatment with them Over the top.
For Daniele Peli, co-founder and CEO of the company
Intred fibre, consolidation is «a natural process that can encourage innovation and cost optimizationbut generate, in parallel, a more competitive landscape with related expansions of market shares. A process that will offer opportunities, but which I believe is necessary handle very carefully».
The infrastructure node
Among the hot topics of the sector stands out, in particular, and especially after the completion of the operation with KKR, the hypothesis of a merger between NetCo and Open Fiber: «An agreement – according to Peli – which could have transformative potential for the market and which in a certain sense it shifts the game onto the infrastructural network. It could be a significant step for the sector which in some ways could lead to an acceleration of the growth of the network in specific geographical areas of the country, but at the same time reduce the competition which has been good for consumers and the quality of service”.
Second Renato BrunettiCEO of Unidata, «the moment for telecommunications is historic. The sector is evolvingbut, in our opinion, the merger of Open Fiber with Netco will be very problematic: a monopolist would be created, an eventuality that in terms of regulation should not be created, except for natural monopolies”. A common sense solution, according to Brunetti, would be to hand over the gray and white areas, where there is no or little market, to Netco «while the black areas which are in an area where there is competition would remain in Open Fiber».
Relatively smaller companies such as Timenet also want to be part of the consolidationwhich reiterates the desire to explore possible aggregation operations, both with companies of the same size in the telecommunications sector and in adjacent sectors such as cloud. «We are always careful to monitor the market to find targets suitable for ours business and it is possible that something will happen in the short term”, he announces Francio Ioriodirector and founder of the internet provider and telecommunications operator company based in Empoli.
