Italian majority-state-owned national postal service Poste Italiane said on Sunday it was launching a cash-and-share offer to buy former phone monopoly Telecom Italia (TIM) for 10.8 billion euros ($12.5 billion).
Poste, which is already TIM’s largest shareholder, said it would offer 0.167 euros in cash as well as 0.0218 newly issued Poste shares for each TIM share tendered – valuing TIM shares at 0.635 euros each, or a 9.01% premium to Friday’s closing price.
Poste said the takeover, aimed at taking TIM private, would provide the group with a mobile and fixed-line telecoms network, a leading position in cloud and data centre infrastructure and the ability to provide secure data handling for the state, in line with European Union efforts to protect the bloc’s data sovereignty.
The combined group would have pro forma revenue of 27 billion euros and an operating profit of 5 billion euros with more than 150,000 employees, Poste said in a statement.
Poste said pre-tax benefits from the merger would total 700 million euros a year, of which 500 million euros would come from cost cuts, including lower financing costs.
Poste, which owns just over 27% of TIM, said it expects to conclude the transaction by the end of the year, with cost savings materialising within two years and revenue benefits within three.
“Poste expects a positive impact on its earnings per share starting in 2027,” the company said.
Source: Reuters.com