Italy's Postal Service Makes $12.50 Billion Bid for Telecom Italia — 3rd Update

By Mauro Orru and P.R. Venkat

Italy's state-controlled postal service Poste Italiane has made a $12.50 billion cash-and-stock bid for Telecom Italia, a move that could bring its operations and infrastructure back under government ownership.

Poste Italiane said Sunday that it was offering a combination of cash and shares for a consideration of 10.8 billion euros, equivalent to $12.50 billion, with Telecom Italia shareholders set to receive 0.167 euros in cash and 0.0218 newly issued Poste Italiane shares for each share held.

The bid values the Italian telecommunications company at 0.635 euros a share, representing a 9% premium to Telecom Italia's closing price on Friday. Poste Italiane shares closed down more than 6.8% on Monday, while Telecom Italia stock closed up 4.7%. Telecom Italia said its board of directors had launched a process to evaluate Poste Italiane's bid "in the interest of the company and its shareholders."

Formed through the merger of several companies that populated Italy's telecoms landscape in the past century, Telecom Italia has become a fixture of the country's industrial base since its privatization in the late 1990s, evolving from a traditional telecoms provider into a diversified information- and communication-technology group.

The company, whose operations span Italy and Brazil, offers core fixed and mobile telephony services, but also cloud, cybersecurity and entertainment services. Chief Executive Pietro Labriola has sought to make the company leaner and more efficient in recent years by selling non-core businesses to slash debt.

Last year, it agreed to sell its submarine cable unit Sparkle--which develops 5G mobile networks and fiber-network infrastructure--to the Italian government and fiber operator Retelit. In 2024, it completed the sale of its fixed-line network assets to American buyout firm KKR & Co.

A takeover from Poste Italiane, which already commands a roughly 27% stake in Telecom Italia, would bring its operations and network infrastructure under public ownership after about three decades.

Nationalizing Telecom Italia and its assets would be in line with efforts from the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to safeguard critical infrastructure. Meloni sees Italy's telecommunications network as a key strategic asset.

Poste Italiane generates the lion's share of sales from its core mail, parcels and distribution business and financial-services unit. However, a deal for Telecom Italia would enable it to significantly expand its Postepay unit that provides mobile and fixed-line telephone services.

Poste Italiane Chief Executive Matteo Del Fante said in a call Monday that a merger would create a national champion with services spanning logistics, distribution, data, connectivity and tech, giving it a competitive advantage in the artificial-intelligence era.

The company said the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com and P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 23, 2026 17:51 ET (21:51 GMT)