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News > International
Telecom Italia seeks suitor?
April 13, 1999: 3:21 a.m. ET

Report: TI examining defensive takeover by shell company or strategic partner
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Telecom Italia is seeking to boost its defense against Olivetti's hostile $65 billion bid by courting a strategic investor or recapitalizing the company, according to a report published Tuesday.
     Telecom Italia's defense stumbled Saturday when it was forced to cancel a shareholders' meeting designed to approve its restructuring plan. Saturday's meeting failed to register a quorum.
     The recapitalization plan calls for a new shell company to make a prearranged bid for the telecom giant, said The Wall Street Journal Tuesday. TI has already secured a credit line of more than 20 billion euros ($21.7 billion) arranged by its financial advisers.
     The shell company would then merge with its new acquisition and have more flexibility under Italian law to mount a share buyback and distribute dividends, key parts of TI's defense strategy, said the Journal.
     The second option is to attract a strategic investor to take a minority stake at a price above the 11.50 euros a share tendered by Olivetti in its latest offer.
     A counter-bid is seen as more complex than a recapitalization, but an offer by a partner such as Telefonica de Espana would open the way for a large pay out to existing shareholders and leave them with majority control, the newspaper reported.Back to top

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.