Italy DMT Says Wind, 3 Italia Transmission Towers Deal Over

ROME -(Dow Jones)- Italian telecommunications tower operator DMT said Friday that the previously planned sale of the combined tower businesses of Wind and 3 Italia has now been completely abandoned.

DMT was one of the parties interested in acquiring Wind and 3 Italia's transmission towers, in a partnership with Italian investment fund F2i. Spanish infrastructure operator Abertis Infraestructuras also presented a non-binding indicative offer for the towers.

DMT's statement comes after Wind said Sept. 5 that it had put on hold the planned sale of its and 3 Italia's transmission towers, due to difficult market conditions.

Hutchison Whampoa's Italian mobile phone unit, 3 Italia, and Naguib Sawiris' Wind had launched an offer to sell 18,000 mobile phone transmission towers through newly founded company Eiffel.

The tower business was expected to fetch EUR1.5 billion to EUR2 billion when the auction process kicked off last October, but it has been repeatedly postponed.

-By Giada Zampano, Dow Jones Newswires; +39 06 69766920; giada.zampano@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 26th September 2008