TIM Gets One Step Closer to Sparkle Sale

An acquisition of Telecom Italia’s wholesale unit Sparkle was cleared by the European Commission’s competition authority. The unit is to be sold to Italy’s finance ministry and infrastructure specialist Retelit.

The deal was signed last April and will see the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and Retelit take joint control of the wholesale provider. It values Sparkle at €700 million. Approving the sale, the EC noted it would not raise competition concerns, given its limited impact on competition in the markets where the companies are active. It added that the transaction largely concerned cable landing stations, submarine cables, and related infrastructure.

In these sectors, the EC noted, where the organisations involved horizontally overlap, the combined market shares of the parties would remain moderate and there would remain several viable alternative providers on the market. It also noted under new ownership, the larger “entity would not have the ability or the incentive to foreclose rival providers of backhaul activities”.

TIM had originally planned to complete the deal by 4Q25, though in its annual report published last month, it estimated closure in 1H26. In that annual review, TIM CEO Pietro Labriola stated that, should the deal be completed, the company would be able to consider a return to shareholder remuneration through a share buyback program of up to €400 million.