Does the government snub the single Tim-Open Fiber network? Here are the effects on the stock market
The substantial stop of the government on the Tim-Open Fiber unitary network project hinging on the 51% control of the former Telecom Italia (writes Repubblica), the share capital of the group led by Gubitosi. Facts, numbers, reconstructions and comments
The substantial stop of the government – according to Repubblica – to the Tim-Open Fiber unitary network project hinging on the 51% control of the former Telecom Italia stock market earthquake the stock of the group led by the CEO, Luigi Gubitosi.
Here are all the details. With the denial-clarification of the Tim group in a press release published on closed stock exchange.
WHAT HAPPENS TO TIM ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE
Tim enters the trading at Piazza Affari after a start without being able to make a price and a subsequent suspension in the auction of downward volatility. Press reports on the Unica Network weigh on the title as part of the recovery and resilience plan presented to the EU. The stock at the end of the day lost 5.5% to 0.42 euros. While in recent days, at the news of the purchase by Cdp of a further 10% of Open Fiber from Enel ( here the article by Start Magazine ), the stock had risen.
WHAT REPUBLIC HAS STATED
"The government plan, just broadcast in Brussels, has essentially archived – wrote the newspaper la Repubblica today – In silence, without too much fuss, the executive of Mario Draghi has in short reversed the course with respect to Conte's team".
THE UNITARY NETWORK IN THE PNRR
On page 98 of the Recovery Plan it is written: "The intervention of the NRP is located in the wake of the challenging objectives defined at European level and in the awareness that ultra-fast broadband networks are a General Purpose Technology". Networks, not networks, the newspaper Repubblica remarked.
THE TODAY'S POSITION OF MINISTER COLAO
“I believe that the right role of politics is to think about the interests of citizens”, then to bring broadband to them and “second to do it in a balanced way. Corporate matters must be evaluated by the companies and the Antitrust ”, said Vittorio Colao, Minister of Technological Innovation, in a webinar of Il Messaggero . “Our objective is political and of the country – he underlined – not of corporate structures” and therefore aiming at “any situation suitable to give broadband to everyone, we will do it with tenders” that will put operators in competition. Bringing broadband throughout the country "in a balanced way" means for Minister Colao, making sure "that it guarantees choice, competition, the plurality of subjects that protect the small compared to the large ones" and aim for "any suitable situation to give broadband to everyone, regardless of where they are. We will do it with tenders, with subsidies that can go to competing operators, collaborating operators, in consortium. We will see it when we do the races ”.
AND THE ACCESSCO PROJECT?
Words, those of Colao, in which there is never a yes to the merger of the Tim-Open Fiber networks hoped for by the previous executive and on which the main shareholders (including Cdp in both Tim and Open Fiber) had been working for some time in symbiosis with the top management of Tim, a group chaired by Salvatore Rossi.
THE ANALYST'S COMMENTS
In the wake of journalistic indiscretions, analysts have also exercised, in some cases blunting the scope of the news. “The indications of the PNRR do not preclude co-investment agreements and / or consortia in the gray areas, which we believe are necessary to limit overbuild and avoid waste of public and private resources,” Intermonte analysts say in a report.
THE WORDS OF GIORGETTI ON A SINGLE NETWORK
Is a surprise? Not so much. Already in mid-March – as remarked by Start Magazine – the Minister of Economic Development, Giancarlo Giorgetti, had hoped for a "single publicly controlled network", to avoid recreating "a private monopoly and much less a private monopoly in foreign hands", with clear reference to Tim, owned with a majority of 23.75% by the French of Vivendi and 9.81% by Cdp itself.
THE QUESTION OF CONTROL
Therefore, no to a network controlled by the former Telecom Italia which now sees the French group Vivendi in the leading position in the shareholder structure (moreover now struggling with a pax to put an end to corporate and legal disputes with Mediaset).
THE ROLE OF VIVENDI
Those words of Giorgetti had met with the favor of Giorgia Meloni, president of the Brothers of Italy, who had immediately judged during a seminar organized by the Melonian party, "very positive the fact that on the single network Minister Giorgetti has sent signals to questioning the new privatization system set up by Conte and Gualtieri, aimed at favoring Tim and the Vivendi French who control it ”.
THE THOUGHT OF COLAO
On similar positions – noted Business Insider Italy – also the Minister for Digital Transition, Vittorio Colao, already number one of Vodafone (therefore a historical opponent of Tim in Italy): Colao, right at the conference of the Brothers of Italy on 8 April, he explained: “With Giorgetti we started the Italy Plan at 1 Giga, to get the country to 2026 in good shape according to three principles: speed; technological neutrality, therefore not just fiber because the very powerful 5G is also arriving and it is important to get everywhere; and, third principle, to maintain competition, to ensure that dominant positions are not created and that citizens can continue to choose ”.
GIORGETTI'S THOUGHT
"I don't know – Giorgetti underlined during the parliamentary hearing held in mid-May to illustrate the dicastery's programmatic lines – whether the single network project is right or wrong, or rather, this Government is reflecting on a path that is been taken, if it offers a level playing field for everyone, but it is good if it is done quickly, we must decide, because if only the constitution of the company implies 18 months, and in the meantime everyone does, legitimately what they like, they make investments to maximize our position, as is consistent with the business logic, we create overlaps. While logic would like public and private resources to be deployed in an intelligent and rational way ”. According to the minister, it is also important to carry out a “mapping” of the infrastructure to offer certain addresses to operators.
WHAT THE ANALYSTS SAY
Intermonte's financial analysts see a "strong interest from various parties to put together a single network project". "Several press articles (La Repubblica in particular) report that the final version of the PNRR presented in Brussels no longer includes a potential combination of the TIM (FiberCop) and Open Fiber networks, but provides for a single network in white areas (already assigned to Of in the Infratel match) and gray, with a plurality of goals in black areas ". "The indications of the PNRR do not preclude co-investment agreements and / or consortia in the gray areas, which we believe are necessary to limit overbuild and avoid waste of public and private resources," analysts say in a report. Despite the position taken by the government in the PNRR, there seems to be a "strong interest – continues Intermonte – on the part of various subjects in putting together a single network project: in particular Cdp (which has recently strengthened its positions in the capital of Of and in the governance of Tim), Macquarie (interested in maximizing the returns on its investment in Of) Tim and perhaps also Enel (potentially interested in further earn-outs from its sale in the event of a Tim-Of combination) ".
WHAT DO YOU SAY IN TIM
Marco de Grandis, coordinator of technical areas at TIM's Supervisory Board on equal access – Supervisory Board of Tim wrote on Linkedin: “Classic example of a storm in a glass of water triggered by the irresponsibility of certain journalists. Where is the news? No one has ever talked about putting the single network into the Recovery Plan. these are two separate and parallel things. the government has long said with Colao that the plan would go ahead leaving the two companies, Tim and CdP, to freely carry out their agreements and projects. THE Recovery Plan DOES NOT EXCLUDE THE SO-CALLED (IMPROPERLY) SINGLE NETWORK PLAN which can go on. Clearer than that, you die! Journalists should inform themselves before shooting high-impact articles by focusing on ambiguities. Caution should be exercised when it comes to news impacting the markets ”.
TIM'S OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
"With regard to the press rumors circulated today, which have had a negative impact on the performance of the stock on the Stock Exchange, TIM announces that it will present a complaint to Consob to protect the company and its shareholders". This is what we read in a press release of the Tim group chaired by Salvatore Rossi and led by the CEO Luigi Gubitosi, Tim stresses that "the interpretations, reported by the press, relating to the contents of the of the Pnrr which aims to digitize the country and complete the networks in areas where private investments are not sufficient ", reads the note with clear albeit indirect reference to today's article in the newspaper Repubblica signed by the new correspondent from Brussels, Claudio Tito. "In fact, the relationship between the aforementioned Plan and possible combinations of the companies currently operating in the sector is not understood, given that, as repeatedly recalled by government representatives, these combinations are among the market operations entrusted exclusively to the will of the companies involved and their partners ”, concludes Tim, referring indirectly to the AccessCo project with Open Fiber.
(article being updated)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/rete-unica-tim-open-fiber-borsa/ on Thu, 06 May 2021 08:16:50 +0000.