During the past few hours, the American fund Kkr has submitted to Tim a takeover bid for 100% of its shares aimed at delisting, i.e. exiting the stock exchange. This offer was defined by Kkr as friendly and is worth a total of 10.8 billion euros. A particularly high figure if we consider that Telecom is worth on the stock exchange 7.4 billion and has debts of 22.5 billion.
What is the Kkr fund?
The American fund Kkr is a company active on a global scale dealing with investments, offering management solutions in the insurance, alternative equity and capital markets fields. The fund is not considered speculative, as its stated objective is to generate returns on investments supporting the activity of the companies involved in the process.
In order to carry out this business in the best possible way, Kkr sponsors investment funds targeting the private equity, credit and real estate segments, and operates with strategic partners active in the management of hedge funds. The idea behind all this is to attract partners from all over the world, increasing the value of the portfolio of the companies with which it collaborates.
The fund was created in 1976 like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, it has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2010, and has grown in various sectors, from infrastructure to real estate, from real estate to hedge funds, the company, completing 280 private equity investments in portfolio companies with nearly half a billion worth.
Today Kkr has offices in 21 cities on four continents (America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East) and manages $ 429 billion (nearly € 400 billion) assets and has a portfolio of 109 companies in its private equity funds generating approximately $ 244 billion in annual revenues. Finally, it boasts a team of over 1,700 employees, consultants and senior advisors, including approximately 550 investment professionals.
The offer to Tim
As we said at the beginning, the offer made by the Kkr fund to Tim is aimed at delisting and the Americans have set as a condition the achievement of 51%, or the majority. Since the offer has been defined as friendly it will be subject to diligence with Tim’s Board. To make matters worse the fund stated that it wanted to proceed only with the approval of the government, given that the telephone company is a strategic asset for Italy.
The offer is promoted at a price of 0,505 euro per ordinary and savings share, which compares with a closing price on the stock market on Friday equal to 0,3465. The Group’s capitalization would therefore rise, including savings shares, to approximately € 10.8 billion compared to the previous € 7.5 billion.
Naturally, the response of the Italian government, conveyed by the Italian government, was not long in coming Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), who declared that he had: “acknowledged the interest in TIM shown by qualified institutional investors”, judging the news as overall positive for the country. The main objective of the Ministry is that projects involving the network: “are compatible with the rapid completion of the ultra-broadband connection, according to what is envisaged in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, with the necessary investments in the development of the infrastructure, and with the safeguarding and growth of employment ”.
It is currently unclear whether Tim will accept the offer, although Kkr seems intent on enhancing the company’s assets. Updates are then postponed to November 26, when a new TIM Board of Directors will be held, to examine the proposal.