AGL 38.54 Increased By ▲ 0.97 (2.58%)
AIRLINK 129.50 Decreased By ▼ -3.00 (-2.26%)
BOP 5.61 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.53%)
CNERGY 3.86 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (2.39%)
DCL 8.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-1.58%)
DFML 41.76 Increased By ▲ 0.76 (1.85%)
DGKC 88.30 Decreased By ▼ -1.86 (-2.06%)
FCCL 35.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.23%)
FFBL 67.35 Increased By ▲ 0.85 (1.28%)
FFL 10.61 Increased By ▲ 0.46 (4.53%)
HUBC 108.76 Increased By ▲ 2.36 (2.22%)
HUMNL 14.66 Increased By ▲ 1.26 (9.4%)
KEL 4.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-2.26%)
KOSM 6.95 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (1.46%)
MLCF 41.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-0.36%)
NBP 59.60 Increased By ▲ 1.02 (1.74%)
OGDC 183.00 Increased By ▲ 1.75 (0.97%)
PAEL 26.25 Increased By ▲ 0.55 (2.14%)
PIBTL 5.97 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (2.4%)
PPL 146.70 Decreased By ▼ -1.70 (-1.15%)
PRL 23.61 Increased By ▲ 0.39 (1.68%)
PTC 16.56 Increased By ▲ 1.32 (8.66%)
SEARL 68.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.49 (-0.71%)
TELE 7.23 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.14%)
TOMCL 35.95 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.14%)
TPLP 7.85 Increased By ▲ 0.45 (6.08%)
TREET 14.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.28%)
TRG 50.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.40 (-0.79%)
UNITY 26.75 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (1.33%)
WTL 1.21 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 9,806 Increased By 37.8 (0.39%)
BR30 29,678 Increased By 278.1 (0.95%)
KSE100 92,304 Increased By 366.3 (0.4%)
KSE30 28,840 Increased By 96.6 (0.34%)

MILAN/ROME: Telecom Italia's top investor Vivendi wants to play a bigger role at Italy's largest telecoms group, calling into question the position of CEO Luigi Gubitosi after two profit warnings in the span of months, two sources close to the matter said.

French media giant Vivendi, which holds a 23.8% stake in Telecom Italia (TIM), wants to discuss proposals to relaunch the group and extract value from its key landline grid with the Italian government, they added.

Vivendi declined to comment, reiterating its commitment to contribute to the long term success of TIM.

TIM declined to comment.

Italian state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) is TIM's second-largest shareholder through a 9.8% holding, which has been built in the past years to oversee its network assets, deemed as strategic by authorities in Italy.

Piling pressure on Gubitosi to reorganise TIM and turn around its business, Vivendi has managed to get an extraordinary board meeting on Nov. 11, sources have said, after it expressed its disappointment at a board meeting last week.

Earlier this year, Vivendi and CDP both backed a slate of nominees to appoint TIM's board of directors, confirming Gubitosi as CEO and former Bank of Italy official Salvatore Rossi as chairman.

But since then, TIM has issued two profit warnings due to weak performance of its key domestic business, giving the French group leeway in its push for changes.

TIM's stock has lost 17% since the beginning of the year against a 23% rise in Milan's blue-chip index. With talks still ongoing, it remains to be seen how Vivendi's demands will be met, the sources said.

A key issue is the future of TIM's landline infrastructure.

Under former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, TIM agreed a plan championed by the Treasury to merge its fixed-line access network with those of state-backed rival Open Fiber.

However, key figures in the current ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, including Innovation Minister Vittorio Colao, poured cold water on the plan, which envisaged TIM owning more than 50% of the new entity.

In the past few months, Gubitosi had been trying to persuade Vivendi that handing control to CDP on any network combination with Open Fiber was the only way to revamp the plan and offset political resistance, the two sources said.

Comments

Comments are closed.