Italy's Ministry of Economy and Finance has submitted an offer to buy the subsea cable arm Sparkle of Telecom Italia S.p.A. (BIT:TIT), or TIM, the Italian telecom group said on January 31, 2024 without disclosing financial details. The move coincides with the expiration of the deadline for US private equity firm KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) to submit a final bid for Sparkle.

The government's bid, which is effective for 15 days, includes the option of TIM retaining a minority stake in the business for a certain period of time. It will be reviewed by the group's board on February 7, the press release said. The offer reportedly values Sparkle at up to EUR 750 million (USD 812.8 million), including debt and variable components, according to a source quoted by Reuters.

In late 2023, TIM agreed to sell its fixed network to KKR, which submitted a binding offer valuing the business at EUR 18.8 billion in enterprise terms. The telecom group previously turned down KKR's non-binding offer for Sparkle describing it as "unsatisfactory".