ROME, March 14 (Reuters) – Telecom Italia TLIT.MI (TIM) rose sharply on the stock market on Monday morning after the group announced it had entered into formal talks with KKR KKR.N to assess the offer of a potential amount of 10.8 billion euros presented in November by the American fund.
The action of the first Italian telecommunications operator gained 8.03% to 0.31 euro around 09:15 GMT, one of the best performances of the broad European index Stoxx 600 .STOXX, then up 1.05%.
The board of directors of Telecom Italia, at the end of a long meeting on Sunday, announced at the end of the evening the opening of discussions with KKR but also the study in parallel of the hypothesis of a merger with Open Fiber, its main competitor in fiber optics in Italy.
The stock market value of TIM, including the French Vivendi
VIV.PA is the largest shareholder, has shrunk by almost 30% since the start of the year to fall to an all-time low, the prospect of a takeover by KKR which had carried it at the end of 2021 gradually fading .
And neither the appointment of a new managing director, Pietro Labriola, nor the new strategic plan drawn up by the latter had made it possible to trigger a rebound.
For Banca Akros analyst Andrea Devita, the decisions announced on Sunday represent “a positive outcome which increases the probability (recently still considered quite low) of seeing the offer finally finalized, provided that KKR’s position has not changed”. .
The American private equity group, whose offer Vivendi considers too low, declined to comment.
KKR’s plan aims to take Telecom Italia out of the stock market and relaunch it by splitting its infrastructure activities, according to several sources.
(Report Giulia Segreti, with Elvira Pollina; French version Marc Angrand, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)