The board of directors of Telecom Italia (TIM), which is the subject of a proposed takeover by KKR, decided on Thursday to deny the American investment fund access to its accounts for an in-depth audit. .
The directors of TIM have “unanimously decided not to consider it appropriate, at this stage, to proceed with the + due diligence + request” submitted by KKR in November, indicates a press release from the group.
KKR had sent a letter to Telecom Italia on Monday to reiterate its request to have access to its accounts as part of “due diligence”, an essential condition for launching a possible public takeover bid (OPA).
TIM had given the US fund until Monday evening to detail the terms and price of its non-binding proposal released in November.
The fund had at the time declared itself ready to pay 10.8 billion euros for the acquisition of all of TIM, i.e. 0.505 euros per share, but had not confirmed this amount in its new missive to the Italian group, as market conditions have since changed.
Telecom Italia justified its refusal of access to its accounts by the fact that “KKR has decided not to confirm the previous expression of interest and the price indicated therein”.
“If KKR decides to submit a concrete, complete and attractive offer” including an indication of the price per share, the board of directors of TIM “will be able to reconsider its decision in the interest of all shareholders”, assures the group. .
Telecom Italia had indicated in mid-March that it wanted to grant only “due diligence of a purely confirmatory nature”, which means that it should be preceded by a formal offer and not intervene before as requested by KKR.
KKR’s offer was well above the operator’s stock price, but was deemed too low by Vivendi, which entered the capital in 2015 at an average purchase price of 1.071 euros per share.
The title Telecom Italia closed Thursday up 2.16% to 0.312 euro on the Milan Stock Exchange, in a market down 0.59%.
