Thursday, Mar 13, 2008
By Giada Zampano and Marietta Cauchi
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON (Dow Jones)--The timetable for the sale of Italian Wind SpA and 3 Italia SpA's transmission towers business has slipped again, with binding offers now due mid-April, peoplefamiliar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.
Wind shortlisted four bidders in December and binding offerswere scheduled to be submitted by Feb. 7. That date was pushed back to March as difficult market conditions forced Wind to reconsider refinancing plans for its debt load of around EUR8.5 billion.
Wind is controlled by Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris' holding Weather. Weather also has a controlling stake in Orascom Telecom Holding (ORTE.CI), which operates mobile phone networks in the Middle East, Africa and south Asia.
The nearest deadline for Weather is the repayment of a EUR1 billion loan by June, related to the EUR12 billion purchase of Wind from Italian power company Enel SpA (EN).
In addition to the outstanding debt, Sawiris, together with Enel's Chief Executive Fulvio Conti, is under investigation by Italian prosecutors in connection with the sale of Wind.
The bidders for the towers include Spanish toll-road operator Abertis Infraestructuras SA (ABE.MC) and TPG, which is bidding through France's TDF SA, the company it owns jointly with French insurer AXA SA (AXA).
A consortium comprising telecommunications tower operator DMT SpA (DMT.MI), Italian investment fund F2i, Australian investment group Babcock & Brown Ltd. (BNB.AU), Deutsche Bank AG's (DB) real-estate arm RREEF and UniCredit SpA (UC.MI) is also on the shortlist.
Clessidra Capital Partners, which bid jointly with Italy's infrastructure company Atlantia SpA (ATL.MI), is the fourth bidder.
Reports that Abertis might team up with this consortium rather than submitting its own bid were unconfirmed by the parties involved.
Meanwhile Wind said there was no connection between the schedule and the recently-opened investigation into the sale of Wind by Enel.
"Discussions involving Wind, its transaction partner H3G and numerous interested parties in the tower transaction are ongoing," a spokesperson for Wind told Dow Jones Newswires
Morgan Stanley (MS) and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI) are advising on the sale process.
-By Marietta Cauchi and Giada Zampano, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9241; marietta.cauchi@dowjones.com
(David Roman in Madrid contributed to this story.)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
13-03-08 1743GMT
