VIVENDI WILL NOT ACCEPT TIM’S NETWORK SALE IF ITS VALUE IS NOT RECOGNIZED
ROME (Reuters) – Vivendi will not support the sale of Telecom Italia’s (TIM) landline network if its fair value is not recognized, Arnaud de Puyfontaine, the French group’s chief executive, said on Wednesday.
“I want to be clear about the value of the network. Vivendi will not support the sale of the network at the value estimated by analysts (between 17 and 21 billion euros, editor’s note) and this is in the interest of TIM “said Arnaud de Puyfontaine in an interview with La Repubblica.
“If the real value (of TIM’s network) is not recognized, as a long-term industrial investor, we are ready to evaluate other opportunities,” he added.
Vivendi is TIM’s largest shareholder.
According to sources familiar with the matter, TIM has set the value of its fixed telephony network at around 20 billion euros, including debt.
TIM and the Italian Caisse des Depots (CDP) said on Sunday that they had signed a preliminary agreement to merge the assets of the telecom operator’s fixed network with those of its competitor Open Fiber, the two groups said.
(Report Giulia Segreti, French version Matthieu Protard, edited by Kate Entringer)