Wind to reopen transmission tower auction, holds off on sale to Abertis
Wind, the Italian mobile telco, has held off on on selling its transmission tower network to listed Spanish infrastructure group Abertis, Il Sole 24 Ore reported.
The Italian-language daily cited unspecified rumours that Wind's owner, listed Russian mobile telco Vimpelcom, had taken the decision with a view to reopening the auction process and achieving a better deal.
On 19 February, Vimpelcom contacted EI Towers, the listed Italian transmission tower network owned by Mediaset, as well as a consortium of private equity firm Providence and Italian infrastructure fund F2i, to see if they were still interested in bidding, the report said..
The report said Abertis could possibly team with one of the bidders if the asking price for the transmission tower network goes up. Albertis was chosen as exclusive bidder for the assets in early February, the item said.
The report noted that Wind's transmission tower network is valued at EUR 700m-EUR 1bn.
Source Il Sole 24 Ore