State-controlled postal company Poste Italiane said Sunday that it was launching a 10.8-billion-euro cash‑and‑share takeover bid for Italian telecommunications group TIM.
Poste Italiane, which has strong banking, insurance and financial services arms as well as energy and broadband ;activities, is already the former phone monopoly's biggest shareholder with a stake of around 27% after acquiring 17% of it from French group Vivendi in two separate operations last year.
The aim is to form a large group that combines the financial-insurance and telecommunications sectors, along with logistics and digital services.
TIM's share price rose by 4.69% in early trading on the Milan stock exchange on Monday while Poste's stock fell by 4.9%.
