Ardian and Oak Holdings 1, which control 32 percent and 39 percent of INWIT respectively, are exploring a bid to buy out minority shareholders in Italy’s largest mobile telecom towers company and are discussing the financing with banks, two people close to the matter told Reuters. Oak Holdings 1 is backed by co-investors GIP, Vodafone and KKR, and Abu Dhabi investment firm Mubadala is expected to take a stake in INWIT as part of the plan. The move comes amid a contractual dispute between INWIT and its two main customers, Telecom Italia and Swisscom’s Fastweb, both of which have started procedures to terminate their contracts in an effort to renegotiate better terms. INWIT, listed in Milan since 2015, has lost about 27 percent of its market value over the past year to 7.1 billion dollars (6.3 billion euros) at Friday’s close, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters.
The take-private speculation is not new: a French media report in February said Ardian and Brookfield were interested in taking INWIT private, and the towers company has been a takeover candidate ever since. INWIT told Reuters it had no information on the matter, and Ardian, GIP, Vodafone, KKR and Mubadala all declined to comment. The people cautioned that the deliberations are still ongoing.