White-hot eve for Tuesday's Telecom Italia shareholders' meeting. On the agenda is the conversion of savings shares into ordinary ones and the extension of the board of directors to include Vivendi but, barring last-minute surprises, it will end with the rejection of both operations and with the war at home prelude to the turnaround of the top management expression of the former Telco.
Yesterday Telecom Italia replied to Vivendi that it had announced its disapproval of the conversion of savings, defending the operation because it was conceived "in the interest of the Company and of all its shareholders" and because it was launched "in a market moment that seemed particularly favorable ” after having “scrupulously fulfilled its disclosure obligations”.
In the end, Telecom's top management left "the decision to proceed with the proposed conversion operation" to the evaluation of next Tuesday's shareholders' meeting.
But now it's war: in the meeting Vivendi has the numbers to prevent, as a blocking minority, the approval of the conversion while, in turn, the funds have the strength to reject the enlargement of the board of directors and to avoid the entry of the four new directors requested by Vivendi, who is the first shareholder and who would like to rebalance the balance of power at the top.
However, the double rejection will not end here, but will inevitably pave the way for the turnaround at the top with the zeroing of the current board of directors, which is an expression of the former Telco (Mediobanca, Generali, banks) and which no longer reflects the changes that have taken place in the shareholding especially with the arrival of Vivendi in force and with the one in sight of Xavier Niel.
Tuesday will be the first round but the earthquake is upon us.
