The board of Italian energy giant Enel has approved the sale of a 10 percent stake in wholesale operator Open Fiber to state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) for EUR 530 million. Once completed, the transaction would raise CDP’s stake in Open Fiber to 60 percent, a move that could allow the state lender to proceed with a long-term project to merge Telecom Italia’s landline grid with Open Fiber’s fixed network assets in a nationwide entity called AccessCo.
In a statement, Enel also confirmed that it would be exiting from Open Fiber after previously agreeing to sell its remaining 40 percent stake to Australian fund Macquarie. “We are extremely pleased about these five terrific years in Open Fiber,” said Enel CEO Francesco Starace. “In such a limited amount of time… Italy has gone from near the back of the pack to become a frontrunner in the EU in terms of FTTH cabling." He added that "it is to CDP and Macquarie that we leave the honor to continue this infrastructure project, which is essential for the recovery and growth of the country."
According to the FTTH Council Europe, Italy increased its FTTH coverage by over 30 percentage points from 15 percent in 2016 to around 45 percent at the end of 2020, having added 3.8 million households in a 15-month period. Open Fiber’s FTTH network has so far reached around 11.5 million of the 20 million addresses targeted by its 2018-25 buildout plan. It has also begun activating internet using FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) and satellite broadband (HTS) technology in the country’s remotest regions.
