This article is provided to FT.com readers by mergermarket—a news service focused on providing actionable, origination intelligence to M&A professionals. www.mergermarket.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Listed Italian telecoms group Telecom Italia has mandated Calyon on a strategic review for its French ISP Alice but no formal sale process has been launched yet, two sources and a person close to the situation told mergermarket. The two sources said that no documents have been sent to potential bidders.
The person close to the situation said that any decision on the future of Alice is expected at the beginning of March 2008, when Telecom Italia is going to present its industrial plan. The person also said that the Italian telecom group has given Calyon only a mandate to evaluate all the possible options for Alice and not a mandate to handle the sale process.
Regarding Alice, one source said that all options were under consideration, including a sale, the status quo and an acquisition in France. If a sale of Alice is the chosen option, the process will be very fast as, after the previous sale of both AOL France in 2006 and T-Online France in 2007 to Neuf Cegetel for EUR 288m and EUR 500m respectively, valuations and potential bidders are known.
Newspaper reports noted that Alice is the last available target in the French market and that the French subsidiary of Telecom Italia accounts for about EUR 1.2bn in the books of the Italian group.
Telecom Italia management is reviewing the group’s operations outside Italy but this would not lead to the sale of all its non-Italian businesses, as this move would not be seen favourably in Italy, the sources said. The new management is looking at where the Italian company wants to maintain a strong presence and where it wants to sell, they added.
However, the person close to the situation said that any eventual disposals of Telecom Italia‘s non-core assets are aimed at company growth, also through acquisitions. The Telecom Italian’s new management, headed by Franco Barnabe’, is therefore following a lead given by formal CEO Riccardo Ruggiero, who in November 2007 said that Telecom Italian needed to grow and any disposals would lead to other acquisitions.
A Telecom Italia spokesperson said that the company does have anything to communicate to the market.
Earlier reports named Neuf Cegetel, Iliad, Bouygues Telecom, and Numericable as potential buyers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information or to inquire about a trial please email sales@mergermarket.com or call EMEA: + 44 (0)20 7059 6105 Americas: +1 212 686-5277 Asia-Pacific: +852 2158 9730
