Ardian is investigating Italian tower operator INWIT, citing private sources | – #Ardian #investigating #Italian #tower #operator #INWIT #citing #private #sources
March 22 (Reuters) – French investment firm Ardian has a market value of 11 for Italy’s INWIT ( INWT.MI ), the country’s top telecoms tower operator, according to the people. billion euro (12 billion dollars) is in the early stages of exploring a proposal for is familiar with the issue.
Europe Ardian, INWIT’s second-largest shareholder after tower company Vantage Towers AG (VTWRn.DE), wants to take INWIT private and potentially offer working with JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM.N ) advisors on it. he said.
Europe has seen infrastructure investors compete for a piece of the largest networks of towers, in part because of their fixed cash returns and long-term contracts. Last year, Deutsche Telekom sold 51% of the Funkturm tower business to the Canadian consortium Brookfield and USAsold to private equity firm DigitalBridge.
Any proposal for INWIT could take months to materialize as preparations remain in the early stages, one of the people said. Given the size of the deal, Ardian is considering bringing in a co-investor to help finance the offering, the person added.
Vantage Towers’ stake is a potential obstacle to the deal, one of the sources said, as the company sees itself as a “long-term owner” of INWIT.
Ardian has about 30% and Vantage has 33%.
The sources cautioned that the proposal was not definitive and asked not to be identified because the discussions are confidential.
Ardian, Vantage Towers, INWIT and JPMorgan declined to comment.
INWIT 20, born as part of TIM’s cell tower operations20Merged with Vodafone’s core business in Italy in 2010, responsible for over 23,000 towers national created a champion.
INWIT derives the bulk of its revenue through long-term contracts with wireless operators to deploy the appropriate cellular antenna infrastructure on their masts.
Vantage itself is the target of a takeover bid from a joint venture formed by Vantage shareholder Vodafone ( VOD.L ) and a consortium including KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners.
Reporting by Milana Winn in New York and Amy-Jo Crowley in London Additional reporting by Elvira Pollina in Milan; Edited by Elaine Hardcastle
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2023-03-22 22:49:31
Source – reuters
Translation“24 HOURS”