EU Commission clears acquisition of Telecom Sparkle by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Retelit

Brussels – The European Commission has authorised the joint acquisition of Telecom Italia Sparkle by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and Reti Telematiche Italiane SpA (Retelit). This was announced by the European Commission in a note, following the first statement by the European Competition Authority’s transaction register. The transaction mainly concerns landing stations for submarine cables and related backhaul activities, i.e. the activities connecting peripheral access points to the central core of the infrastructure.

The Commission concluded that this transaction “would not raise competition concerns,” given its limited impact on competition in the companies’ markets. In particular, the EU Commission found that in all the markets identified where the parties’ activities overlap horizontally, “the parties’ combined market shares would remain moderate and several viable alternative suppliers would remain in the market.” Furthermore, the Commission concluded that “the merged entity would not have the ability or incentive to foreclose rival backhaul providers.” The notified transaction was examined under the standard merger review procedure.

Now, all that is needed to give the acquisition the final push is the green light from the United States. Tim expects the transaction to be completed in the second quarter of 2026, and the buyback is linked to the closing; this is the route chosen by the group led by Pietro Labriola to reward shareholders: a share buyback amounting to 50 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of Sparkle, up to 400 million.

Telecom Italia Sparkle is an international telecommunications company that provides voice, data, and IP services, as well as cloud and data centre solutions, to retail and wholesale operators and multinational corporations. Sparkle owns and operates a global network of over 600,000 km of fibre, including terrestrial and submarine backbones in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Americas, as well as submarine cables connecting Europe with South-East Asia.