MILAN (Reuters) – Telecom Italia (TIM) is close to kicking off a process to sell a minority stake in its enterprise service arm, two sources close to the matter said, as CEO Pietro Labriola strives to revamp Italy’s biggest phone group.
Labriola’s turnaround plan for the debt-laden former phone monopoly centres around ceding control of its prized landline grid to state lender CDP, while also breaking up the company into several units and lure new investors.
As it presses ahead with its turnaround plan while valuation issues complicate the network’s disposal, TIM will shortly launch a beauty contest to select a partner for the so-called TIM Enterprise business unit, the sources said.
The venture combines the phone group’s connectivity services for big corporate clients and public administration, as well as cloud, cybersecurity and Internet of Things operations.
In March CVC made a non-binding propsal for a stake of up to 49% in the unit. The approach valued the venture at 6 billion euros, including debt, a price tag deemed inadequate by TIM, sources had previously said.
Other players besides CVC have expressed interest after the unit was presented at a capital markets day in July, Labriola told analysts last month, adding TIM would now try to understand how to “extract the maximum value from this area”.
In the meantime, diverging views over the value of TIM’s landline assets pitting TIM’s top investor Vivendi against the group’s second biggest investor CDP are complicating talks over the network disposal ahead of a national election on Sept. 25.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; editing by Valentina Za)
