3 Italia and Wind in ongoing merger talks - report

News General Italy 5 FEB 2014
3 Italia and Wind in ongoing merger talks - report
Hutchison Whampoa and VimpelCom are continuing with high-level talks about a possible merger of their respective Italian mobile phone units, 3 Italia and Wind Telecomunicazioni, reports Italian daily La Repubblica. Without citing its sources, La Repubblica said that under the latest draft agreement 3 Italia would control the majority of the company resulting from a possible tie-up of the operators' activities, although Wind would retain a stake in the event of a future stock market flotation. The report also states that certain assets would be sold to reduce debts. These could include mobile towers and Wind's fixed line business Infostrada, which may be of interest to TIM and Vodafone respectively and could raise around EUR 3-4 billion.

Wind is currently the third largest mobile operator in Italy behind Telecom Italia and Vodafone, with 3 Italia coming in fourth.

Categories:

General

Companies:

Wind,  Infostrada,  3 Italia

Countries:

Italy

Tags:

Wireline, Wireless, M&A buyouts & divestments, Market research

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