Italy is investigating tax issues related to the sale of €3.4 billion in assets by the telecommunications company Wind Tre, according to a report by Bloomberg on Thursday, December 19. Wind Tre is a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate.
According to a document seen by Bloomberg, Italy’s financial police are investigating Wind Tre’s sale of thousands of mobile signal tower assets to the Spanish company Cellnex. Wind Tre is suspected of not properly paying registration taxes and other related matters.
The document reveals that Wind Tre allegedly evaded taxes amounting to €132 million in 2022.
It is reported that executives at Wind Tre are suspected of using a complex asset sale operation through CK Hutchison Europe Investments Sarl based in Luxembourg to reduce the company’s tax burden in Italy.
The financial police stated in the document that after the sale of mobile signal towers, Wind Tre engaged in tax optimization beyond legal boundaries in terms of registration tax and income tax to reduce the overall tax burden.
The investigation started last year and Wind Tre was requested in October of this year to submit a comprehensive tax audit report. Wind Tre stated that the transaction complies with applicable tax laws and is cooperating with the authorities’ investigation.
This transaction is part of CK Hutchison’s sale of European telecommunication signal tower assets to Cellnex, with a total transaction value of €10 billion involving approximately 24,600 signal towers.
Cellnex agreed to this transaction in November 2020 with the intention of incorporating these signal towers from CK Hutchison into its existing network of 60,000 signal towers.
CK Hutchison is an enterprise group owned by the Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and his family.