Ardian in early stages looking into bid for INWIT

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Ardian in early stages looking into bid for INWIT

Reuters -- French investment firm Ardian is in the early stages of looking into a bid for Italy's INWIT, the country's top telecoms tower operator, with a market value of 11 billion euros $12 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Ardian, the second largest shareholder in INWIT behind European tower company Vantage Towers AG, wants to take INWIT private and is working with advisers at JPMorgan Chase Co on a potential offer, the people said.

Europe has seen infrastructure investors compete for a slice of its largest towers networks because of their stable cash yield and long-term contracts. Deutsche Telekom sold 51% of its tower business to a consortium of Canada's Brookfield and the US private equity firm DigitalBridge last year.

A person said that any offer for INWIT could take months to materialise as preparations remain at a preliminary stage. This person said that Ardian is considering bringing in a co-investor to help fund a bid, given the size of the deal.

One of the sources said that the company is understood to view itself as a long-term holder of INWIT due to the fact that the shareholding of Vantage Towers is a potential hurdle to a deal.

Ardian has a stake of around 30% and Vantage has 33%.

The sources cautioned that an offer is not certain and asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential.

INWIT was founded as a spin-off of TIM's mobile tower operations in Italy and merged with Vodafone's mast business in 2020 to create a national champion in charge of over 23,000 towers.

INWIT generates most of its revenue through long-term contracts with wireless carriers to host their mobile antenna infrastructure on its masts.

A joint venture formed by Vantage shareholder Vodafone and a consortium, including KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners, is the target of an offer to take it private.