Italy’s opposition leader calls on Draghi to suspend Open Fiber stake sale

The head of Italy’s main opposition party Brothers of Italy called on Prime Minister Mario Draghi to put on hold the planned sale of a stake in state-backed broadband firm Open Fiber to Australia’s Macquarie, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

” Enel ‘s exit from Open Fiber’s capital would deprive Italy of a significant presence in the telecoms infrastructure”, Giorgia Meloni said in the letter.

Open Fiber is jointly owned by Italy’s biggest utility Enel and state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP).

Enel has been in talks to sell up to 50% of the fibre infrastructure group to Australian fund Macquarie for 2.65 billion euros ($3.11 billion) since last year and a deal is expected to be reached by June. and Macquarie declined to comment.
Reuters