COMMUNICATIONS: Seperate Articles Report On A Vivendi Sale Of It’s Telecom Ital

Vivendi: Baa2              Telecom Italia: Ba3[P]/BB/BB

Two different articles in recent days about a potential Vivendi sale of part or all of its stake in Telecom Italia. With a stake sale long rumoured, Telecom Italia’s equity was +2.5% on the strong premium mentioned while spreads were modestly tighter. Vivendi equity was limited at +0.7% while their EUR 28s were ~5bp tighter though Vivendi bonds are largely priced to the group’s breakup put. 

• On Saturday Corriere reported on a proposed investor consortium to acquire part of Vivendi's 23.75% stake in Telecom Italia valued at EUR 500mn for a 6-7% stake with potential participants include French private equity Tikehau and US-based Blackstone. Strategy involved creating a SPV for initial acquisition and further management of Vivendi's remaining shares. The promoter of the plan is said to be Andrea Pezzi, formerly a consultant for the French group in Italy and Claudio Costamagna, an investment banker and former president of Cdp though the parties denied involvement. 
• This morning Il Messaggero reports that Vivendi seeks to sell its entire 23.75% stake in TIM in a single block for EUR 2bn, nearly triple the current market value of EUR 0.9bn. The article claims that Vivendi would only be interested in selling the entire package in bulk while also noting that new investors acquiring over 3% in TIM may trigger Italy's "golden power" regulations and that the government favours maintaining current structure post-network sale to KKR. The author notes that the rumours suggest the prospect of a split with the sale of the Brazil or consumer units.