KKR bids for Telecom Italia in a mammoth private-equity deal

ITALIAN HIGHKKR,TIM finance usually starts winding down for the year in the first week of December when Milan, the country’s business capital, celebrates Ambrose, its patron saint. Not so this year. Over the weekend a new dossier dropped into the in-tray of Mario Draghi, the prime minister, that will keep him and bankers busy into the new year.On November 21st a New York-based private-equity firm, launched a €10.8bn ($12bn) bid to buy Telecom Italia (), Italy’s biggest telecoms operator. The friendly bid would be the biggest private-equity buyout ever in Europe. It needs both the approval of the firm’s board members and of the government, which can veto a takeover of a national champion.