ROME (Reuters) – Telecom Italia’s (TIM) plan to sell its prized landline grid asset to reduce debt “should and can go well”, CEO Pietro Labriola said on Thursday, as sources said bids have not met top shareholder Vivendi’s expectations.
U.S. fund KKR and a rival consortium comprising state lender CDP and Australian fund Macquarie presented revised bids for the grid last week.
“We haven’t seen the (new) offers yet,” but “when managing a complex dossier like this, you have to be confident that things should and can go well,” Labriola said on the sidelines of an event in Rome.
Two sources with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters that KKR’s offer is the most generous at around 23 billion euros ($24.93 billion) overall, still short of the more than 30 billion euros sources close to Vivendi have said it wants.
Labriola said there was also a back-up plan to improve TIM’s prospects, should the asset sale not be possible.
“We have to turn around this company, we have a plan A and a plan B, we have to work to try to meet the objectives and satisfy all the shareholders,” he said.
TIM’s financial debt stood at almost 26 billion euros at the end of the first quarter of 2023. The group has been struggling with a steady erosion of earnings and sales over the past decade, amid stiff price competition in its domestic market.
TIM’s board meets to review the bid proposals on June 19 and is expected to take a decision on June 22.
($1 = 0.9226 euros)
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Gavin Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)
