Italy's biggest utility Enel kicked off the sale of up to 50% of fast broadband company Open Fiber to Australian infrastructure fund Macquarie on Thursday, in a move that could open the way to the creation of a full-fiber national network.
Enel, which jointly controls Open Fiber with state lender CDP, said it had given a mandate to its CEO to sell between 40% and 50% of the company to the Australian fund in a deal worth up to 2.65 billion euros ($3.3 billion) excluding earn outs.
The deal, expected to be completed by the end of June, also includes a series of earn-out clauses, including one linked to the positive conclusion of a legal dispute between Open Fiber and phone incumbent Telecom Italia.
A sale by Enel of its stake could clear the way for a government-sponsored plan to merge Open Fiber with the last-mile grid unit of TIM and create a unified ultrafast broadband network.
CDP, which is the second-biggest shareholder in Telecom Italia behind French media giant Vivendi, would emerge as a prominent investor in the combined entity.
Enel said another earn-out clause in the agreement with Macquarie revolved around actual implementation of the "single broadband network" with TIM.
Sources have previously said Rome wants Macquarie to buy less than 50% so CDP can take control of Open Fiber and make sure the blueprint for a single network is respected.
Enel said any deal to sell its whole 50% stake would be subject to Macquarie and CDP sharing the "modification of certain aspects that currently regulate the governance of Open Fiber."
It also said the sale was conditional on Open Fiber allowing Macquarie to share due diligence data with a small number of co-investors so it could syndicate the asking price.
($1 = 0.8156 euros)
(Reporting by Stephen Jewkes, Elvira Pollina, editing by Giulia Segreti, Kirsten Donovan)
