Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 22, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
TIM extends the deadline for the Sparkle bid to March 15, allowing Italy's Treasury and Asterion more time to finalize their offer.
MILAN (Reuters) -Telecom Italia (TIM) <TLIT.MI> has agreed to push back to mid-March a deadline to agree a sale of its subsea cable unit Sparkle to a consortium comprising Italy's Treasury and Spanish fund Asterion, the Italian phone group said on Wednesday.
"The company agreed to an extension until March 15 to allow the finalisation of the preparatory steps for the final decision on the offer," TIM said in a statement, noting the "positive evolution of negotiations."
The Treasury and Asterion filed a 700-million-euro ($729 million) binding offer just before Christmas.
TIM's board was initially expected to take a decision on the offer, which was previously valid until Jan. 27, on Wednesday, two sources with knowledge of the matter had said.
A previous deadline for an exclusivity period had been set for the end of February. This has also been re-set to March 15.
The board was unable to approve a sale of the unit on Wednesday because the bid is reliant on a 600-million-euro financing package from a group of banks which has not yet been finalised, three other people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
($1 = 0.9603 euros)
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Alvise Armellini; Editing by Valentina Za and Gavin Jones)
The main topic is the extension of the deadline for TIM's subsea cable unit Sparkle bid by Italy's Treasury and Asterion.
The parties involved are Italy's Treasury and the Spanish fund Asterion.
The deadline was extended to allow more time for finalizing the preparatory steps for the offer.
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