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ROZZANO, Italy, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Shareholders in Telecom
Italia's (TIM) masts business INWIT approved a planned
merger with Vodafone's Italian mobile tower company at an
extraordinary meeting on Thursday, INWIT's chairman Piergiorgio
Peluso said.
TIM, which owns 60% of INWIT, and Vodafone
agreed earlier this year to merge their mobile tower
infrastructure and to jointly roll out 5G in Italy.
INWIT's minority shareholders, whose green light was needed
for TIM to be able to sign off the deal, approved the merger
almost unanimously at Thursday's meeting.
After the merger, TIM and Vodafone will have 37.5% each of
the enlarged INWIT.
INWIT shareholders also approved a special dividend
totalling 570 million euros ($634 million), equal to 0.5936
euros per share, once the merger is completed.
The 10 billion euro tie-up is awaiting European Union
antitrust approval and is expected to close in the first few
months of 2020.
($1 = 0.8997 euros)
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina, Editing by Gianluca Semeraro and
Mark Potter)
Vodafone (VOD)