Italian operator Tiscali has reached an agreement to merge with Linkem Retail, a unit of wireless broadband group Linkem, to create what would be the country's fifth largest fixed line provider and the largest combined provider of fixed wireless access (FWA) and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technologies. In a joint statement, the companies said the merger plan will see Linkem receive 5.0975 Tiscali shares for each EUR 1 of capital it holds in Linkem Retail. Upon completion of the transaction, Linkem will become Tiscali's largest investor with a 62 percent stake.
The proposed deal is still subject to approval by Tiscali's minority shareholders at an extraordinary meeting to be held by March and to the fulfillment of several conditions, said the companies, adding that the transaction is expected to close within the first half of 2022. If completed, the group would have around 1.2 million retail clients in Italy as well as a 19.4 percent share of the FWA+FTTH market.
The ultimate aim is to integrate the respective assets of Tiscali and Linkem to generate "significant industrial synergies” and take full advantage of the opportunities arising from the implementation of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) via an integrated offering of fixed, mobile, 5G, cloud and smart city services, added the companies.
Tiscali had around 650,000 customers at the end of June and said its fibre customer base rose from 199,000 to around 250,000 thanks mainly to an increase in its nationwide FTTH footprint from 886 to 1,100 localities. The company has deals in place to access the Fastweb and Open Fiber networks and announced plans to sign a new co-investment contract with Telecom Italia (TIM) covering the latter’s FiberCop venture.
Linkem currently has more than 700,000 customers across Italy and launched a '5G FWA' service with network partner Fastweb at the end of 2020, promising to bring speeds of up to 1Gbps to 500 digital divide localities by the end of 2021.
