KKR, Macquarie in Italy-backed talks over telecoms network commercial deal, sources say

By Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte

MILAN, April 27 (Reuters) – The owners of Italian telecommunications companies FiberCop and Open Fiber are discussing the terms of a possible commercial deal to complete the country’s ​high-speed broadband rollout, three sources close to the matter said.

FiberCop has ‌the Italian government and U.S. fund KKR as its main investors, after in 2024 they partnered in a 19-billion-euro ($22 billion) buyout which remains KKR’s largest deal in Europe to date.

Italy and KKR have been at odds over Rome’s push to merge FiberCop with rival ‌Open ​Fiber, due to concerns over valuation and debt ⁠ratings.

Open Fiber is also controlled ⁠by Rome through state lender CDP, with Australia’s Macquarie as a co-investor.

The latest talks signals KKR’s readiness to repair relations with Italy, after it clashed with Rome last year over Fibercop-Open Fiber merger plans.

The sources ​said Rome acknowledged that conditions are not currently in place for a merger.

The economy ministry has urged instead FiberCop, Open Fiber and their respective ⁠shareholders to find alternative solutions to advance ⁠the broadband rollout without duplicating costly investments, the sources added.

Under ​the government-sponsored scheme being discussed, KKR-backed FiberCop would build fibre infrastructure in most ​of the areas, known as ‘grey’, which still lack ultra‑fast broadband ‌but are not earmarked for public funding, one of the sources said.

Open Fiber would remain instead as the only full-fibre operator in subsidised remote areas and the two operators would grant each other access to their respective infrastructure, ⁠the sources said.

The two companies would remain direct competitors in the most profitable parts of the country where they already operate rival fibre networks.

The sources cautioned ⁠that the scheme could ‌still change and that an accord could prompt antitrust ⁠regulators to impose measures to preserve competition in some ​of the ‌targeted zones.

KKR, Macquarie, CDP, FiberCop and Open Fiber all ​declined to ⁠comment.

Italy owns directly 16% of FiberCop and 60% of Open Fiber through CDP.

Despite improvements in recent years, Italy still lags the European average in full‑fibre coverage, with around 70% of households passed but customer take‑up at roughly 30%, according to digital consultancy iDate.

($1 = 0.8520 euros)

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte; Editing ​by Valentina Za)