THE OFFER WILL NOT EXTEND TO ITALY
Telecom Italia S.p.A. announces that its indirectly controlled subsidiary TIM Participações S.A. (Brazilian BOVESPA ticker TCSL4), a Brazilian wireless operator, has filed today a Preliminary Prospectus with the Brazilian Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (the Brazilian Securities Commission) and will file a shelf registration statement on Form F-3 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“TIM Part” - NYSE Ticker: TSU) for the sale of preferred shares of TIM Part.
The proposed offering of preferred shares will be comprised exclusively of the sale of a portion of the shares indirectly held by Telecom Italia S.p.A. in TIM Part through its wholly-owned subsidiary TIM Brasil . The preferred shares will be offered in the form of American depositary shares, or ADSs, in an international offering and in the form of preferred shares in a concurrent Brazilian offering.
The Telecom Italia Group will maintain the control of TIM Participações through its current 81.19% stake of ordinary voting shares, none of which will be included in the offering.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the ADSs or preferred shares described in the shelf registration statement to be filed, nor shall there be any sale of the ADSs and the preferred shares in Italy and in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The ADSs and the preferred shares will be offered and sold only pursuant to the base and the prospectus supplement when such base prospectus and supplement are made available. The base prospectus and the prospectus supplement will contain detailed information about the company and management, as well as financial statements. The ADSs and the preferred shares may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the relevant prospectus supplement is made available. A written copy of the base prospectus, and the prospectus supplement when they are available, may be obtained by making a request therefor to the offices of TIM Participações, S.A. at Avenida das Américas, 3434-7° andar, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, CEP 22.640-102, telephone: +55 (21) 4009-3742 and will be available free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
Milan, May 16, 2006