Macquarie offers EUR 2.65 bln for Enel's Open Fiber stake

News Broadband Italy 18 SEP 2020
Macquarie offers EUR 2.65 bln for Enel's Open Fiber stake
Italian utility giant Enel has confirmed the receipt of a binding bid from Australian infrastructure fund Macquarie for its 50 percent stake in Italian wholesale-only operator Open Fiber. In a brief statement, Enel said Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets (MIRA) offered EUR 2.65 billion, excluding debt, for the stake, with further adjustment and earn out mechanisms to be taken into account. The state-backed utility said its board is now “awaiting updates on the details that may emerge following the required in-depth activities with MIRA on the content of the offer.”

Enel controls Open Fiber with state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) and is being pressured by the Italian government to merge its fibre assets with those of Telecom Italia (TIM) to create a nationwide entity called AccessCo open equally to all operators. CDP has a right of first refusal on any sale by Enel, while Vodafone and WindTre also have a right of first refusal on a combined stake of around 15 percent in the event of an ownership change.

When debts of around EUR 2 billion are included, Macquarie’s offer for Enel’s 50 percent values the whole of Open Fiber at around EUR 7.3 billion. The bid comes after US investment fund KKR Infrastructure acquired a 37.5 percent stake in TIM’s last-mile fibre and copper grid company FiberCop for EUR 1.8 billion at the end of last month. 

That deal is expected to be the launching pad for the government’s plan to merge FiberCop with Open Fiber to create AccessCo, a project that's like to face significant regulatory hurdles, according to recent reports.


 

Categories:

Fixed

Companies:

Open Fiber

Countries:

Italy

Tags:

Fibre, Internet Access, Wholesale, M&A buyouts & divestments

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