A Telecom Italia tem um novo dono. O que muda para a TIM Brasil?

Telecom Italia, which owns TIM Brasil with a 68% stake, now has a new owner. The company announced that Poste Italiane, the Italian state postal service operator, has acquired its majority control with 66.6% of the capital in a transaction that had been discussed since at least March. Poste Italiane already held around 30% of the capital before the deal and increased its stake with a public offering that valued Telecom Italia at a 10% premium to the previous bidding round's closing price.

The goal of Poste Italiane is to remove Telecom Italia from the stock market. To do this, it opened a new window for share purchases on September 21-25, allowing existing shareholders who did not join the offer to sell their shares on the same terms. The aim is to reach at least 90% of the capital, which would already enable them to close the deal.

One analyst covering TIM Brasil told Brazil Journal that, from a practical standpoint, not much changes for the company – at least not immediately. "The big question is what strategic direction this new controller will take in the medium and long term," the analyst said. "The important thing is to understand if he finds it sensible to continue with an asset in Brazil that has no synergy with the Italian operations.

And if he decides to stick with the asset, what approach will he take? Will he prioritize cash generation over growth, or will he do whatever needs to be done?" According to this analyst, the main strategic discussion at TIM Brasil today relates to the move into fiber-optic. "In large part, there is an exhaustion of the business model of a purely mobile company.

TIM Brasil knows this, and they have even said they are looking at fiber optics. But to make that move, they would need to buy assets, which would require investments." In Brazil, it is speculated that a strategic transaction that would make sense would be a merger between TIM Brasil and V.tal, controlled by BTG. However, there is still uncertainty about the timing of decision-making by the new controller.

"It may be that they do not want to do anything major immediately. That they need a maturation period," the analyst said. The Italian transaction comes at a time when telecom services have been seen as a strategic asset by European governments, increasingly concerned about protecting their data sovereignty. The combination of the two companies would create a giant with combined revenue of €27 billion and operating profit of €5 billion.

The new entity would have over 150,000 employees. The deal also brings relevant synergies to Poste Italiane's accounts. The company estimates €700 million per year in pre-tax earnings from the merger, with €500 million coming from cost cuts, including a lower debt cost. Telecom Italia is currently the third-largest broadband and mobile phone provider in Italy by customer number, after Vodafone and WindTre. In Brazil, where it controls TIM Brasil, it is also in third place, behind Vivo and Claro.