The saga surrounding the sale of Infostrada, the Italian telecoms company, took another twist on Tuesday after Albacom, one of its rivals in the Italian market, reiterated that it was still interested in acquiring the firm.

The sale is rapidly causing chaos in the Italian new issue market, with three potential telecoms IPOs in the pipeline, six banks ready to run them, but no-one sure if they will happen at all. The tale also drags in Vodafone, the largest mobile operator in Europe, BT, Albacom's biggest shareholder, and France Telecom, which owns half of Infostrada.