(Bloomberg) -- U.S.-based KKR & Co.'s approach to buy former phone monopoly Telecom Italia SpA is “of a friendly nature,” and it wants to work with the carrier's board “to achieve their support for the offer,” the private equity giant said in a statement Tuesday.
“A favorable opinion by the board of directors will be a voluntary condition to completion of the offer,” KKR said, as will be the approval of the Italian government following any so-called Golden Power procedure to safeguard strategic assets which could include the landline grid that makes up the bulk of Telecom Italia's appeal as a target.
KKR also said it's looking forward to engaging with the board of directors at Milan-based Telecom Italia about the merits of the offer. Telecom Italia earlier this month tapped Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and LionTree LLC to advise on KKR's preliminary 10.8 billion-euro ($12.2 billion) bid, as well as to explore alternatives to the private equity fund's offer.
New York-based KKR faces a big hurdle in the form of France's Vivendi SE, Telecom Italia's largest investor, which has said it's in for the long haul and has no plans to sell its stake. Vivendi has also insisted that the KKR bid doesn't reflect Telecom Italia's fair value.
The Italian company has scheduled a board meeting for Friday where it's expected to again review the offer with its advisers.
Telecom Italia shares rose as much as 1.6% in Milan on Tuesday, and traded down 0.2% at 10:53 a.m., giving the company a market value of about 9.2 billion euros.
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