Telecom Italia CEO confident on submarine unit, tower stake sales
By Elvira Pollina
MILAN (Reuters) -Telecom Italia (TIM) Chief Executive Pietro Labriola on Thursday expressed confidence about the disposals of the phone group's submarine cable unit Sparkle and TIM's remaining stake in telecoms tower company INWIT.
TIM is seeking to raise around 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) from the sales, having just completed the sale of its domestic fixed-line network to U.S. fund KKR for 18.8 billion euros, excluding potential future payments.
"We are quite optimistic over the finalisation of the two deals," Labriola told an analyst call.
Sources have previously said TIM is in talks with a consortium led by the Italian Treasury to sell Sparkle, after it rejected an offer from the Treasury reportedly worth up to 725 million euros earlier this year.
TIM is also looking to sell its residual holding in INWIT and it is discussing a potential deal with French fund Ardian, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
TIM holds about 10% in a vehicle which owns nearly 30% of Milan-listed INWIT. French firm Ardian already controls 90% of that vehicle.
At current market prices, the TIM stake would have a value of less than 300 million euros.
Labriola said TIM would not split its domestic services operation into two separate companies, continuing to run its consumer and enterprise arms as business divisions within the group.
TIM shares rose 2% by 1200 GMT after TIM reported a 10% core profit rise in the first half for the group left after the network sale.
Core earnings were mainly sustained by TIM's Brazil-listed business and its fast-growing domestic enterprise arm, which provides big corporate clients with cloud and connectivity services.
Labriola reiterated the main focus for TIM domestic operations was to grow organically, but he did not rule out the company could play an active role in M&A both in the consumer and enterprise segment. ($1 = 0.9273 euros)
(Reporting by Elvira PollinaEditing by Keith Weir and Valentina Za)