Telecom Italia (TIM) and Vodafone Italia have sold an 8.6 percent stake in their jointly-owned towers company Inwit for a total of around EUR 800 million with a view to reducing debt. In separate statements, TIM and Vodafone each confirmed that they successfully completed the sale of 41.7 million shares of Inwit, equal to around 4.3 percent of the share capital, at a price of EUR 9.60 per share, resulting in gross proceeds to each company of around EUR 400 million.
As a result of the transaction, Vodafone and TIM's ownership will decrease from 37.5 percent each to 33.2 percent of Inwit. Both companies have also agreed to a 90-day lock-up period with respect to any remaining shares they will hold directly and indirectly in Inwit following the settlement of the transaction.
The sale comes under a month after Vodafone completed the merger of its ‘Vodafone Towers’ subsidiary into Inwit to create Italy’s largest tower operator, with more than 22,000 sites throughout the Italian territory. When the deal was announced in July, both TIM and Vodafone confirmed that over time they would consider jointly reducing their respective ownership levels to a minimum of 25.0 percent each.
