Mediaset, F2i team for EI Towers bid
July 17, 2018
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Mediaset has teamed up with Italian infrastructure fund F2i to launch a joint takeover bid for 60 per cent of Italy’s leading independent tower company EI Towers.
The Italian commercial broadcaster already owns 40 per cent of EI Towers, which has an estimated market value of €1.4 billion. The 60 per cent stake could be worth at least €840 million.
According to financial daily Milano Finanza, the two partners plan to launch a bidco, which will submit a bid for EI Towers. F2i will have a 60 per cent stake in the JV that would be called 2i Towers, while Mediaset would retain its existing shareholding. This will be finalised through a loan provided by a pool of banks, consisting of Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit and Mediobanca.
EI Towers manages a portfolio of around 3,300 towers, of which 2,300 are for broadcasting and over 1,000 for mobile telephony. The company also has a fibre optic backbone spanning over 6,000 kilometres and a satellite infrastructure based on two uplink platforms, guaranteed by long-life contracts for 10 transponders.
EI Towers ended the first quarter of 2018 with core revenues of €67.4 million (+4.3 per cent on Q1 2017) and a net profit of €17.4 million (+21.2 per cent).