By Najat Kantouar and Elena Vardon

Vivendi agreed to sell some of its shares in Telecom Italia for 684 million euros ($740.6 million) to Poste Italiane, which will become its largest shareholder.

France's Vivendi, an investment company steered by the Bollore family, said late Saturday that the deal represents 15% of TIM's--as Telecom Italia is known--ordinary shares and voting rights at a price of 0.30 euro a share.

Following the completion of the transaction, Vivendi will keep a minority interest representing 2.51% of ordinary shares and voting rights of the Italian telecom company, and 1.80% of its share capital.

Poste Italiane will hold 24.81% of TIM's ordinary shares and 17.81% of its entire share capital, it said in a separate statement. The Italian group doesn't intend to further increase its stake to the level that triggers a mandatory public tender offer, it added.

Vivendi cut its stake below the 20% threshold of TIM's ordinary shares and voting rights on March 18 and has carried out further sales since then. It owned 17.51% of the ordinary shares and voting rights of TIM and 12.56% of its share capital as of last Tuesday's market close.

Poste Italiane said that the transaction--which is expected to close in the first half of 2025--will be financed through available cash and is subject to approvals by the country's competition regulator.

The total consideration is quite a sizeable investment for Poste Italiane, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Michele Ballatore said in a note to clients, pointing to its disclosure of available cash of 2.0 billion euros at its latest full-year results.

"The transaction represents a strategic investment for Poste Italiane, carried out with the aim of playing the role of long-term industrial shareholder," Poste Italiane said. The group added that it aims to support the consolidation of the telecommunications market and generate synergies between the two companies, namely through its Postepay division.

Poste Italiane is looking into industrial partnerships in the sectors of telecommunications, financial services and energy, it added.

Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com and to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 31, 2025 02:29 ET (06:29 GMT)

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