22 May 2014
Bloomberg News reports that Telecom Italia’s (TI’s) plan to sell off mobile phone towers in Brazil has piqued the interest of a number of groups, including Goldman Sachs’ Cell Site Solutions Cessao de Infraestruturas and American Tower Corp. According to people familiar with the situation who wished to remain anonymous as the talks are private, both groups have submitted letters of interest to TI, which is working with Morgan Stanley to sell off around 6,000 towers – valued at EUR750 million (USD1 billion). In a statement last week, TI said it is expecting non-binding offers for the Brazilian assets by 31 May. In total, the Milan-based group owns approximately 8,500 mobile towers in Brazil through TIM Brasil. Further, the local unit’s CEO Rodrigo Abreu in on record as saying that whilst the tower sale process is ongoing, there are no plans to sell TIM Brasil itself. ‘There is no offer of any kind to buy TIM … There has been no solicitation and there are no negotiations,’ he told reporters.