The spotlight is on Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. Expectations are growing for the moves that the board of directors of the Via Goito institute will decide in today's meeting on the dossier of the TIM network. CDP (Cassa depositi e prestiti) is working to refine an offer for Netco, the company that controls TIM's fixed network, on which the non-binding offer of the US fund KKR presented on 2 February and extended until 24 March is pending. An extraordinary board meeting of state-controlled Casa Depositi e Prestiti, which owns almost 10% of Telecom Italia and holds a majority stake in smaller rival Open Fiber, is scheduled today.
The hypothesis of the offer on Netco concerns CDP and Macquarie, which for over two years have been the two partners of Open Fiber, operating since 2015 in the laying of optical fiber in Italy. The rumors have followed one another in recent days, talking about CDP that would be close to presenting an offer for the fixed network of Telecom Italia after obtaining preliminary approval from the government that wants a national network.
The offer of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and the Australian Macquarie - reported Bloomberg in the past few hours, before the news of the extraordinary board of CDP - could be announced this month". Although the news agency specified "no final decision has been made".
A context in which the offer of the US fund KKR remains in the field, which holds a minority stake in FiberCop (TIM's secondary network). In 2021, Telecom had rejected an offer from the US company to buy the entire business for 10.8 billion euros. Tim, after the possibility of a joint offer between CDP and KKR has faded, will therefore find two alternative offers for the purchase of its network. At stake are the economic values of the two offers, but also the social and employment impacts.
In all this game there is also the Vivendi chapter, Tim's first shareholder, which has estimated and indicated the value of the network at 31 billion. Above that indicated by KKR that the rumors have assumed to be about 20 billion, a figure also hypothesized for the estimates of CDP / Macquarie, albeit with distinctions.
The dossier of the TIM network therefore records in these hours another step in the direction that could lead to the disposal of a strategic asset, for the former telecommunications giant as for the national interest.