Telecom Italia to sell remaining shares in towerco Inwit

Telecom Italia (TIM) is selling its remaining stake in mobile tower company Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane (Inwit) to a consortium led by French private equity firm Ardian, in a transaction that is expected to add a further €250 million (US$273 million) to the Italian operator's coffers.

The closing of the transaction is subject to certain conditions and is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of 2024.

After selling off shares in the towerco in previous years, TIM now only holds an indirect stake of about 3% in Inwit thanks to its 10% stake in holding company Daphne 3, which in turn holds 29.9% of Inwit. The operator is now planning to sell this 10% stake to the Ardian-led Impulse I consortium, which already owns 90% of Daphne 3.

Other Inwit shareholders are Central Tower Holding Company, which is indirectly owned by Oak Holdings 1 GmbH (in turn co-controlled by Vodafone GmbH and OAK Consortium GmbH) and owns 33.2%. Around 36.9% of Inwit is in free float.

According to its half-year report for 2024, Inwit owns about 24,000 towers in Italy. The towerco was first formed in 2015 when TIM spun off its towers arm. In 2020, it expanded its scope through a merger with Vodafone Towers.

Losing its Sparkle 

For TIM, the Inwit deal resolves one of two matters that were still outstanding after it completed the sale of its fixed-line grid or NetCo to the Optics BidCo consortium controlled by investment firm KKR for €18.8 billion ($20.5 billion), excluding potential future payments.

TIM still has to pin down a buyer for its subsea cable unit Sparkle. CEO Pietro Labriola recently said the operator was "quite optimistic over the finalization of" deals for Inwit and Sparkle. Reuters reported that TIM is seeking to raise around €1 billion ($1.1 billion) from the sales.