MILAN, April 7 (Reuters) – Telecom Italia (TIM) TLIT.MI said on Thursday it had refused to carry out due diligence of its activities requested by KKR, believing that the U.S. fund had not submitted a formal offer on the Italian telecom operator.
KKR approached Telecom Italia last November with a non-binding offer valuing the operator at 10.8 billion euros. But it was only last month that Telecom Italia agreed to enter into discussions.
“If KKR submits a workable, complete and attractive offer (…), the board of directors of TIM will be willing to review its decision in the interest of all shareholders,” said the telecom operator.
In a letter, KKR told Telecom Italia that it was still interested in taking over the group but that it would not submit a formal offer until it had access to TIM’s accounts, the war in Ukraine changing market conditions.
(Report Elvira Pollina, French version Matthieu Protard)