Reuters
Shares in Telecom Italia soar after KKR’s approach
MILAN (Reuters) -Shares in Telecom Italia (TIM) rose as much as 30% on Monday, after U.S. fund KKR presented a non-binding proposal to buy Italy’s former phone monopoly valuing it at 10.8 billion euros ($12 billion). KKR’s offer, which is conditional on the government’s backing and the outcome of a four-week due diligence analysis, gives Telecom Italia (TIM), with its net debt of 22.5 billion euros, an enterprise value of 33 billion euros. TIM said on Sunday KKR had termed as “friendly” its offer of 50.5 euro cents per TIM share, a 45.7% premium to the closing price of the group’s ordinary stock on Friday.
