2015

15 September 2024
|By rundesign

2015 was a particularly important year for the company. In the telecommunications business area, scouting for market opportunities continued and several deals were closed to acquire operators in central and northern Italy (Tecnorad Italia S.p.A., DAS IMMOBILIARE S.r.l. and a series of operators in the Italian region of Liguria), with an EBITDA of about 6 million.
On the television broadcasting front, on the other hand, EI Towers S.p.A. signed an agreement with Cairo Communication Group to implement and subsequently operate a national multiplex in full service mode on the digital terrestrial technology platform.
EI Towers subsidiary Nettrotter S.r.l. was also established in 2015, with a mission to create and develop a nationwide network dedicated to the Internet of Things. In its pursuit of this, the company signed a partnership agreement with Sigfox, the leading global operator of wireless networks dedicated exclusively to IoT and machine-to-machine communications.
VOLUNTARY EXCHANGE AND TENDER OFFER ON RAI WAY – In February 2015, EI Towers S.p.A. promoted a voluntary exchange and tender offer on all the ordinary shares of Rai Way S.p.A.. This high-profile initiative, offering potential benefits for all stakeholders, had the aim of creating a sole major Italian provider of infrastructure for hosting television and radio broadcast equipment, with the capabilities to play a leading role in the mobile telecommunications sector too.
The operation would have delivered numerous benefits, including:

  • • the creation of a more efficient market structure, which at present involves the parallel operation of two digital terrestrial distribution platforms and the cost structure inefficiencies this entails, in such a way as to put Italy on a level playing field with the main industrialized countries in western Europe (UK, France, Spain), where TV broadcast infrastructure is managed by a sole national operator;
  • the creation of a solid and efficient infrastructure platform that satisfies the needs of network operators from both technological and business points of view;
  • • the creation of a new operator with a more diversified asset and customer profile, taking the form of a bigger and stronger group, with a capital structure that is more efficient and better aligned with the main market operators, and representing an interesting investment prospect for the world’s leading institutional investors.

The intention expressed by the public administration to retain a 51% stake in Rai Way S.p.A. made it impossible to pursue the offer.