Poste-Tim, the reason for the operation: the investment, the hypothesis of merger with Iliad and the move of Vivendi

Tim returns under Italian control. Yesterday Poste Italiane rose to 24.81% of Tim, buying a 15% participation from the French group Vivendi for 684 million euros. A little over a month after the entry into the capital, thus, the group of shipments, 65% controlled by the government, became the first shareholder of the telephone company, referee of industrial strategies and summit structures.

Vivendi’s exit

Vivendi instead is preparing to conclude his adventure in Italian telecommunications, which began 10 years ago and dotted with battles, mostly lost, with the other members and with TIM’s management. The French now remains a small share of 2.5% which, in all likelihood, will soon be liquidated on the market.

The investment

Between the first entry into the capital and the following growth, the investment of Poste in TIM amounts to about 850 million, paid in part by drawing on the cashier and partly by yielding to CDP the 3.8% of Nexi. This investment has « strategic nature », underlined the group led by Matteo del Fante. And he is first aimed at promoting the creation of collaborations between the two companies. Poste is already close to closing an agreement with TIM to move Poste Mobile and its five million customers in the telephony on TIM’s network infrastructure that would take over from the current Vodafone supplier. Other synergies are studying in the context of financial, payment, insurance services, in the average contents and energy. As well as in the cloud, of which Tim is a supplier and of which he puts on around 800 million euros per year as the major user of the country.

The passage

The antitrust governance permitting, the 15% passage from Vivendi to Poste should close by the end of the first semester, in time for the shareholders’ meeting of TIM on June 24. Posta could thus present itself in Assizes with a share just below 25%, threshold beyond which he said he did not want to push himself also because, otherwise, the obligation of opa would take. On the other hand, the relative majority share is sufficient to guide the company’s management and industrial future. Poste will certainly want to insert representatives in the TIM Council; In which number and with which proxies it will be understood in the coming weeks, during which the management of Poste will evaluate whether the current governance structure is or not suitable for the new course.

The Risiko Poste

Finally, the Risiko Poste was required to clarify the desire to « promote the consolidation of the Italian telecommunications market », whose revenues, profits and investments have been failed by the price war years. The truce and, therefore, the return to growth should pass for the reduction of mobile operators infrastructured from four to three. In recent months Iliad has already attempted an approach for TIM in concert with the British CVC fund.
The entrance of the post office blocked the operation, without however making it suddenly set. In the coming months, therefore, the fusion between Tim and Iliad could return to the table, this time, however, under the direction of Poste and, in all likelihood, without CVC.

As for Vivendi, the French conglomerate had long been looking for a buyer and evidently he was in a hurry to leave Tim, so as not to request a prize for the altitude sold: the 684 million are equivalent to a price per share of 0.2975 euros, in line with the market.