Italy sets terms for RaiWay stake sale, TV towers tie-up

Rai Way SpA

24/05/2024 16:00

(Updates share reaction, adds details from decree in paragraphs
4-5)
    By Giuseppe Fonte
       STRESA, Italy, May 24 (Reuters) - 
    Italy has approved a decree enabling state broadcaster RAI
to sell a stake in its tower unit RaiWay  RWAY.MI , as long as
the disposal is compatible with a tie-up of RaiWay with rival EI
Towers, a government source told Reuters.
    Explored for years, a combination between RaiWay and EI
Towers would create a national broadcasting towers champion
worth more than 2 billion euros ($2 billion).
    RAI in January said it planned to raise cash to finance its
new business plan by selling a 15% stake in RaiWay. 
    Rome intends to keep control over an infrastructure deemed
of strategic importance for the country, a copy of the document
seen by Reuters showed.
    To this end, an existing obligation remains in place for
RAI, which currently owns 65% of Milan-listed RaiWay, to keep a
stake of at least 30% in its tower business.
    Shares in RaiWay extended gains after Reuters reported news
of the decree, rising as much as 4.7%. By 1420 GMT, shares
gained 3.9% at 5.08 euros each.
        The decree indicated a merger as the way to cut RAI's
stake in its towers unit by saying that the stake reduction was
best  pursued through "operations that ensure a combination of
entities operating in the same sector."
  
        Shares of RaiWay, or of any company resulting from a
merger deal, should remain listed on the Milan stock exchange so
as to have the widest possible shareholder base, it added.
  
    EI Towers is 60% owned by Italian infrastructure fund F2i.
    Italy's top commercial broadcaster MFE-MediaForEurope
 MFEB.MI , which is controlled by the family of the late media
tycoon and political leader Silvio Berlusconi, holds the
remaining 40%.
    ($1 = 0.9244 euros)

 (Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Writing by Elvira Pollina;
Editing by Valentina Za and Louise Heavens)
 ((valentina.za@thomsonreuters.com; +39 02 6612 9526;))