EIB supports Italy’s digital ambitions with €360m loan to TIM for 5G expansion

EIB supports Italy’s digital ambitions with €360m loan to TIM for 5G expansion

(IN BRIEF) The European Investment Bank (EIB) has provided a €360 million loan to TIM, an Italian telecommunications company, to support the expansion of 5G coverage across Italy by the end of 2025 using the 700 MHz bands. The loan, which is partly guaranteed by SACE, will also allow TIM to access debt instruments at more favorable rates. The financing aligns with the EU’s 2030 Digital Decade program, which aims to enhance digital infrastructure, transform businesses, and digitize public services. The EIB has previously provided over €1 billion in financing for TIM projects since 2019.

(PRESS RELEASE) LUXEMBOURG, 5-May-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — The European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union, announces that TIM, one of the largest telecommunications companies in Italy, has secured a €360 million loan from the EIB to support the development of next-generation network infrastructure in the country. The loan, 60% of which is guaranteed by SACE, will be used to finance the expansion of 5G coverage across Italy using the 700 MHz bands by the end of 2025. The EIB’s financing supports the EU’s 2030 Digital Decade program, which aims to enhance digital infrastructure, transform businesses, and digitize public services.

The loan will also provide the TIM Group with access to debt instruments at more favorable rates than those offered on the bond market. This marks the latest in a series of EIB loans to TIM, totaling over €1 billion since 2019, and supports the bank’s core activities in developing telecommunications infrastructure, bridging the digital divide, meeting the objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe, and aiding the EU’s most disadvantaged regions.

In 2022, SACE joined a consortium of financial institutions under the Garanzia Italia framework to guarantee a €2 billion loan for TIM to support its business plan and investment in Italy. The financing agreement, which was signed by EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti, TIM CEO Pietro Labriola, and SACE Chief Business Officer Bernardo Attolico, underlines the strategic significance of the project and the long-standing partnership between the EIB, SACE, and TIM.

Background information

The European Investment Bank (EIB) finances projects in four priority areas: infrastructure, innovation, climate and environment, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Between 2019 and 2022, the EIB Group provided more than €45 billion in financing for projects in Italy.

TIM is the number one telecommunications company in Italy and through our technologies and innovative services we are leading the charge in the digital transition in Italy and Brazil. It offers mobile and fixed-line telephony services and products for communication and entertainment to individuals and families, and supports small and medium-sized enterprises in their digital transition with a portfolio personalised to their needs. Cloud services, the internet of things and cybersecurity are at the heart of the end-to-end solutions provided by the group’s TIM Enterprise business unit, which helps companies and government bodies with their digital transformation using the largest network of data centres in Italy and the expertise of group companies such as Noovle, Olivetti and Telsy. The group develops fixed-line and mobile infrastructure, operating on the international services market via Sparkle. In Brazil, TIM Brasil is one of the main players in the South American telecommunications market and a leader in 4G coverage. In developing its business, the group has adopted a sustainability strategy based on the objectives of climate strategy, the circular economy, digital growth and gender equality, with the aim of becoming carbon neutral in 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2040. It also supports projects of high social interest via the TIM Foundation.

SACE is the Italian insurance and finance company, controlled by the Ministry for the Economy and Finance, specialized in supporting businesses and the national economic system through a wide range of tools and solutions to support competitiveness in Italy and worldwide. For forty-five years, SACE has been the reference partner for Italian companies that export and grow on foreign markets. It also supports the banking system to facilitate, with its financial guarantees, companies’ access to credit with a role recently expanded by new instruments to support liquidity, investment for competitiveness and sustainability under Italy’s Green New Deal, starting with the domestic market. With a portfolio of insured operations and guaranteed investments of €164 billion, SACE, together with all Group companies – SACE FCT which operates in factoring, SACE BT active in Credit, Bonds and Other Property Damage and SACE SRV, specialized in credit recovery and information asset management activities -serves over 37 thousand companies, especially SMEs, supporting their growth in Italy and in around 200 foreign markets.

Media contact:

Lorenzo Squintani
l.squintani@eib.org
+352437982528

Press Office
press@eib.org
+352 4379 – 21000

SOURCE: European Investment Bank