PARIS (Reuters) – Public financial group CDP and its partners Macquarie Asset Management and Open Fiber said on Wednesday they would not submit an offer on Telecom Italia’s (TIM) fixed network by the deadline set for this day, fueling speculation about the future of the Italian telecom operator.
Under-Secretary of State Alessio Butti, in charge of the government’s strategy for broadband telecommunications, denied press reports that the government was considering a full takeover of TIM.
“To talk about a complete takeover is pure fantasy,” he said on the sidelines of an economic event in Rome on Wednesday.
The government’s objective is to secure control of TIM’s fixed network, said Alessio Butti, adding that it was still necessary to define the means to achieve this.
On the Milan Stock Exchange, TIM shares fell 4.7% around 2:20 p.m. GMT after falling more than 8% earlier in the session.
Italy wants to improve the speed and accessibility of broadband services across the country, while supporting TIM as the operator, which employs more than 40,000 people, is heavily indebted.
CDP’s offer on TIM’s fixed network, encouraged by the previous government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, was part of the broader project to bring together the network activities of TIM and those of its competitor Open Fiber, supposed to create a national broadband telecommunications champion controlled by the CDP.
But this project has come up against the reluctance of the new government formed by Giorgia Meloni, which decided on Monday evening to suspend the offer of CDP on the fixed network of TIM, according to government sources to Reuters.
Rome wants to find by December 31 the “best viable market solutions” to support TIM. The CDP indicated on Wednesday that it wanted to participate in the working group proposed by the government.
(Report Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte, written by Gianluca Semeraro, Blandine Hénault for the French version, edited by Kate Entringer)