Telecom Italia among suitors for residual BT business in Italy, sources say
MILAN, Sept 10 (Reuters) -Telecom Italia (TIM) TLIT.MI has put forward a non-binding bid for the remaining operations of BT BT.L in Italy, seeking to get about 100 million euros ($110 million) from the seller in order to take on the assets, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
BT has scaled back its operations in Italy after the national subsidiary was hit by a false accounting scandal which forced the British telecoms group to take a 530 million pound ($690 million) charge in its accounts in 2017.
BT's Italian assets, which comprise four datacenters and a backbone, have drawn preliminary interest from a handful of suitors including Italian fibre operator Retelit and Milan-based private equity firm Nextalia, the sources added.
One of them said binding bids are now expected at the end of this month.
TIM, BT, Retelit and Nextalia declined to comment.
BT had already sold off some parts of the Italian business to TIM, and more of it last year to Retelit.
The division currently has a staff of about 370 full-time equivalent and long-term contracts with big corporate clients, which generated about 300 million euros in revenue last year.
A deal to absorb BT operations in Italy would mesh with TIM's push to strengthen its prized domestic enterprise business, which provides connectivity, cloud and cybersecurity services to large corporate and public administrations customers.
($1 = 0.9070 euros)
($1 = 0.7656 pounds)
Reporting by Elvira Pollina, additional reporting by Paul Sandle in London
Editing by Keith Weir
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