Telecom Italia (TIM) controls 60 percent of Inwit and earlier this year agreed with Vodafone to explore combining their 22,000 towers in Italy into a single entity. The financing scheme is expected to be completed by the end of July at the latest, with the operators set to sign off on the merger at the start of August, said the sources, adding that Inwit would partly use the new funding to develop its business.
The potential merger announced in February would give TIM and Vodafone equal shareholdings and governance rights in Inwit and exclude any obligation for either to launch a tender offer on the company's remaining shares. It would also seek, wherever possible, to move active network equipment that is currently hosted on third party towers to the infrastructure of the new company, said the partners.
