PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 8, 2020--S&P Global Ratings today said that Telecom Italia SpA's (TIM's; BB+/Stable/B) rating headroom remains tight, despite receiving €1.8 billion in proceeds from its announced partnership with KKR. While the proceeds--which are from KKR's purchase of a 37.5% stake in TIM's secondary network (FiberCop)--will increase TIM's financial flexibility and prospects for coinvestment in its fiber buildout, we don't expect the group's limited leverage headroom or credit profile will improve materially considering that: Compared to TIM's €33 billion of debt in 2019 (S&P Global Ratings' adjusted), proceeds improve adjusted leverage by a bit more than 0.2x. Deconsolidation of FiberCop's EBITDA attributable to KKR's stake would likely raise TIM's adjusted leverage by almost 0.2x, yielding little net
