Illiad weighs buying into TIM’s domestic consumer services unit

Iliad is considering buying into Telecom Italia’s (TIM) domestic consumer services operations as part of the French phone group’s push to strengthen its Italian business, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Iliad is weighing the investment as TIM works on a turnaround plan centred around a split of the debt-laden former phone monopoly’s wholesale fixed network from its services business.

Iliad targets in particular the domestic consumer service unit TIM would create as part of its reorganisation process.

Such a unit would include TIM’s fixed and mobile consumer businesses, which last year accounted for 73% of its 9.9 billion euro ($11 billion) domestic service revenue. It would also include mobile frequencies.

Founded by French billionaire Xavier Niel, Iliad launched low cost mobile services in Italy in 2018, intensifying already ferocious price competition in the country’s crowded telecoms market.

Top executives at Iliad have repeatedly stated the group’s interest in an Italian peer if anything came up for sale.

One of the sources said Iliad had informed TIM’s top investor Vivendi of its interest in the consumer business. A spokesperson for Vivendi said the French media group had not had any contact with Iliad.

A third source close to the matter said TIM had not received any proposal from Iliad so far.

The French group has shifted its focus to TIM after a failed approach for Vodafone’s Italian operations in February.

At the time Iliad teamed with Apax Partners to submit an 11.25 billion euro non-binding bid which the British operator swiftly rejected. US News