TIM and Vodafone will announce the merger of their Italian telecoms towers businesses in early August, according to press reports this week.
TIM's INWIT business is working with a group of banks to line up as much as €2.5 billion in financing to push the deal through, Reuters claimed, citing unnamed sources.
The Italian incumbent should have the finance sorted by the end of this month, enabling it to ink a deal with Vodafone shortly afterwards, the newswire said.
TIM and mobile rival Vodafone earlier this year brokered a network-sharing deal that will see them jointly roll out 5G infrastructure. The pair said they will share active network infrastructure in 5G and will consider active sharing in 4G, as well as expanding an existing passive network-sharing pact.
At the same time the telcos confirmed that they were exploring consolidating their collective 22,000 mobile towers into a single entity.
TIM holds a 60% stake in INWIT, the towers business it spun off and floated in 2015.
According to Reuters, the merger will give TIM and Vodafone equal shareholdings and governance rights in INWIT.
Source: https://www.totaltele.com/503306/TIM-Vodafone-finalising-towers-tie-up