Vodafone Said to Jointly Bid With Clessidra, Wind for Metroweb
Vodafone Said to Jointly Bid for Metroweb
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Vodafone Group Plc made a joint binding bid with buyout firm Clessidra Sgr SpA and Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA for Italian network Metroweb SpA, said three people with knowledge of the matter.
Vodafone Group Plc made a joint binding bid with buyout firm Clessidra Sgr SpA and Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA for Italian network Metroweb SpA, said three people with knowledge of the matter. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Vodafone Said to Jointly Bid With Wind for Metroweb
Giuseppe Aresu/Bloomberg
Wind, Italy’s third-largest mobile-phone operator, and Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile-phone operator, initially had made separate bids, according to the people.
Wind, Italy’s third-largest mobile-phone operator, and Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile-phone operator, initially had made separate bids, according to the people. Photographer: Giuseppe Aresu/Bloomberg
Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) made a joint binding bid with buyout firm Clessidra Sgr SpA and Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA for Italian network Metroweb SpA, said three people with knowledge of the matter.
Metroweb, owner of the largest fiber-optic network in Milan and the region of Lombardy, received four binding bids and the sale process is expected to be completed by July, one of the people said. Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP) and F2i SpA, Antin Infrastructure Partners SAS and a unit of Axa Private Equity also made bids, according to the people who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile-phone operator, and Wind, Italy’s third-largest operator, initially had made separate bids, according to the people. Clessidra is the biggest contributor in the joint bid with Vodafone and Wind, three people said. First-round bids had come in between 430 million euros ($637 million) and 450 million euros, people with knowledge of the matter said in March. Lazard Ltd. (LAZ) is advising on the sale.
Metroweb has about 6,600 kilometers (4,100 miles) of cables and the potential to reach one million households. In 2006, Stirling Square Capital Partners, a London-based private equity firm, bought 76.5 percent of Metroweb from Milan’s municipal utility A2A SpA (A2A), which holds the remaining stake in the company.
Axa Private Equity Chief Executive Officer Dominique Senequier said April 29 that the fund’s infrastructure unit was making an offer for Metroweb. Clessidra Chief Executive Officer Claudio Sposito said April 1 he planned to submit a binding offer.
Rising Profits
Spokesmen and officials for Wind, Vodafone, Clessidra, F2i, Intesa Sanpaolo, Antin, Axa Private Equity, Lazard and Stirling declined to comment today.
Milan-based Metroweb had 2010 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about 42 million euros and revenue of about 51 million euros. That compares with Ebitda and sales of 29.6 million euros and 39 million euros respectively in 2006 when Stirling took over.
Metroweb, led by Chief Executive Officer Alberto Trondoli, is an independent open network access provider that offers its infrastructure to third parties including Telecom Italia SpA, FastWeb SpA (FWB), Vodafone and Wind.
To contact the reporters on this story: Chiara Remondini in Milan at cremondini@bloomberg.net; Elisa Martinuzzi at emartinuzzi@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net; Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net
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