Yet More Rumours of a Telefonica / Telecom Italia Merger

Published on: 1st Jan 1970: 1:33am

A group of ­bankers are reported to be working on a plan that could lead to an eventual merger of Spain's Telefonica and Italy's Telecom Italia. The plan, reported by the Il Messaggero newspaper would involve a merger of  Telefonica with the holding company, Telco that controls Telecom Italia.

Such a move would enable Telefonica to avoid having to launch a full take-over of Telecom Italia, a move which would be both expensive and fraught with political problems. The Italian government has already said that it would object to any plans for Telecom Italia's landline assets to be foreign owned.

However, the shareholder holding group, Telco - which includes Mediobanca, Intesa Sanpaolo and insurance group, Generali - recently issued a joint statement denying earlier reports in a different newspaper that a merger with Telefonica was in progress.

There have been persistent rumours that Telefonica would seek a merger with Telecom Italia after the Spanish giant took a minority stake in the company. Telefonica paid EUR2.3 billion for 42.3% of the holding company, Telco in Oct 2007.

Due to the persistence of these ongoing rumours, Telecom Italia's CEO, Franco Bernabe met with Italian Industry minister Claudio Scajola last week and promised to keep the government informed of any developments.

On the web: Il Messaggero

 

Tags: [telefonica]  [telecom italia]  [insurance]  [Italy]