MADRID, 5 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Telecom Italia (TIM) has closed a bridge loan of 1,500 million euros with a maturity of 18 months, an operation with which the teleco seeks to strengthen its liquidity until the sale of NetCo – the company that groups network assets – is closed. fixed assets of the company– to the US fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR).

“The operation aims to cover the refinancing needs until the closing date of the NetCo operation and presents conditions in line with the market benchmarks,” the Italian telecom highlighted in a statement.

TIM has detailed that BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Santander and UniCredit have participated in this operation, the latter also acting as credit agent.

At the beginning of last November, TIM’s board of directors approved the binding offer for NetCo presented by KKR, which valued the assets to be acquired at 18.8 billion euros, with the possibility of reaching 22 billion if certain conditions were met. .

The Italian operator expects to reduce its financial debt by around 14 billion euros thanks to this transaction, which was approved by the Transalpine Government in mid-January of this year.