(Bloomberg) — The board of Telecom Italia SpA could next week reject a request by KKR & Co. for a due diligence operation on the company prior to formalizing an offer to buy it, La Stampa reported on Saturday.
Some board members may argue that the procedure isn’t necessary, since the carrier is already under strict regulatory oversight, the newspaper said. U.S.-based KKR could opt to pursue its offer even without due diligence, La Stampa said, allowing the market to decide on the bid.
Telecom Italia last week named Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and LionTree LLC to advise it on KKR’s preliminary 10.8 billion euro ($12.2 billion) takeover bid, as well as to explore alternatives to the private equity fund’s offer.
If successful, the deal could rank as one of the biggest transactions in the telecommunications industry this year and would be among the largest purchases ever in the European sector by a private equity firm.
France’s Vivendi SE, Telecom Italia’s largest shareholder, has opposed the KKR bid, which is focused on the phone carrier’s fixed-line network.
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