ITALY - Carlyle courts Telecom Italia

The Carlyle Group is thought to be considering a bid for Telecom Italia’s mobile phone units. Other possible bidders include Spain’s Telefónica, the BT Group and Deutsche Telekom. The newspaper La Repubblica reported that Telecom Italia is planning to sell its mobile telephony businesses in Brazil and Italy for EUR 47bn, wiping out its debt of EUR 41.3bn and paying a special dividend of EUR 15bn.