“We are ready to send tender invitations to potential bidders for the Inwit stake,” said Marco Patuano, CEO of Telecom Italia. "The aim is to keep a stake that would allow us to appoint a board member."
Telecom Italia presently owns 60% of Inwit after raising €780 million in an initial public offering in June 2015.
Cellnex Telecom and infrastructure fund F2i SGR are said to be preparing an offer together to acquire a stake of as much as 40% - valued at around €1.1 billion – in the company.
Cellnex - a spin-off of Abertis Infraestructuras - owns 15,000 towers in Italy and Spain, as well as 7,300 towers that Abertis acquired from VimpelCom’s Italian unit while Inwit owns 11,500 sites.