MILAN (Reuters) – Shares in Telecom Italia (TIM) slid on Tuesday after the company said potential bidders for its network assets had asked for more time to work on a deal.
Under a preliminary agreement sealed in May and sponsored by Italy’s outgoing government, state lender CDP and TIM had aimed for a binding deal by the end of October but that deadline will now slip.
CDP’s approach is part of a long-held plan to combine TIM’s fixed network assets with those of state-backed rival Open Fiber to create a single national network operator under CDP control.
“The delay is nominally a big disappointment but hardly unexpected in presence of a valuation gap and yet to be defined government,” Banca Akros said in a note.
TIM shares were 2.2% lower at 0.1775 euros at around 0820 GMT.
The potential network sale is also a key plank of the strategy set out by TIM Chief Executive Pietro Labriola to turn around the debt-laden former phone monopoly.
Labriola is expected to meet CDP Chief Executive Dario Scannapieco on Thursday to discuss the situation.
(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi and Elvira Pollina; Writing by Keith Weir; editing by Agnieszka Flak)
