French telco group Iliad is reportedly interested in acquiring the Italian consumer services operations of Telecom Italia (TIM). A report from Reuters, which cites sources familiar with the matter, said that Iliad is weighing the investment should TIM push ahead with proposals to split its domestic business into retail service and wholesale network divisions. The service unit would include TIM’s consumer fixed and mobile businesses, which contributed 73% of its EUR9.9 billion (USD11 billion) domestic service revenues last year.
Sources close to TIM and its largest shareholder Vivendi said there had been no contact from Iliad so far. In February Iliad submitted a takeover bid for another Italian rival, Vodafone, but the UK-owned company turned it down. Meanwhile investment firm CVC Capital Partners last month made a non-binding expression of interest to acquire a minority stake in TIM’s enterprise services division.