Post Office-Tim, offer stalls at 2.98% two weeks from closing
As of August 27 acceptances of the tender and exchange offer on Tim stood at just under 3% of the instruments subject to the offer. In the background, the rise in US yields after Warsh's speech.
A story the morning edition did not cover, and one with a close deadline: September 11.
Under the tender and exchange offer launched by Poste Italiane on Tim ordinary shares, as of August 27, 2026 total acceptances stood at 50,911,136 instruments, or 2.9836% of the total subject to the offer. The operation has been open since July 20 and will close on September 11, 2026. The data is reported by FIRSTonline based on company statements: the news currently comes from a single journalistic source; no independent confirmation is available.
The figure, taken on its own, says little beyond itself: acceptances of an offer usually concentrate in the final days, when holders of the securities have exhausted the room to weigh alternatives. It does, however, say something about the pace: five weeks after the opening and two weeks before closing, acceptance has not reached 3%.
Two corporate decisions on the same day
Alongside the Tim operation, two moves involving listed European stocks.
EssilorLuxottica has announced a share buyback program of up to 5 million shares, for a value of about 787 million euros at current prices. The context in which the announcement comes is indicated by the same source: the stock was trading around 157 euros, at three-year lows. A share buyback reduces the number of shares in circulation: it is a decision the company makes regarding its own capital, and this newspaper reports its terms without offering assessments of its expected effect.
Pernod Ricard closed the 2025-2026 fiscal year with net profit down 26%, at 1.2 billion euros.
The backdrop: rising yields
The market backdrop against which these operations take place changed on August 28, when Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh gave his first speech at the annual Jackson Hole symposium. Warsh expressed concern about elevated inflation without giving any indication of a rate increase. The reaction, documented by MilanoFinanza and FIRSTonline, was seen in yields before it showed up in the indices.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| 10-year Treasury yield | 4.7% (+3 basis points) |
| Probability of a September rate hike (CME FedWatch) | over 40%, up from 35.4% the previous day |
| Euro-dollar exchange rate | around 1.16 |
| Brent | 88-89 dollars |
| Wti | 82-83 dollars |
Oil remained below 90 dollars. On Wall Street the broadest move was in PayPal, which lost over 13% following news of the failed acquisition deal with Advent and Stripe.
What we don’t know
It is not known how much of the acceptances of the Tim offer come from institutional investors and how much from retail shareholders, nor are there public indications of the expected outcome. The reasons communicated by EssilorLuxottica for the buyback program are not known, nor is the execution timetable. Regarding the probability of a rate hike, the CME FedWatch figure is a reading of the interest-rate derivatives market: it measures operators’ expectations, not the central bank’s intentions, which has given no indication.
The next check on the Tim operation has a precise date: September 11, when the offer closes and the final count of acceptances becomes definitive.
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