“Under these conditions, i.e. without the sale of foreign holdings or without a capital increase, there is a concrete risk of a downgrade of Telecom Italia's debt, with inevitable negative effects on investment capacity in the medium term”. This was stated by the president of Telecom Italia, Franco Bernabè, during the hearing in the Senate in which he illustrated the network spin-off project which "requires a very long time", but which is essential after the Telefonica operation even if at this not so easy and obvious point.
Bernabè also said that he learned of the agreement with Telefonica through the media: "We learned from reading the press releases of the recent modification of the shareholders' agreement between Telco's shareholders." Regarding the hypothesis of a capital increase, the number one of the telecommunications company said that “there are the conditions to do it, I believe there are. There is a moment of extraordinary liquidity on the market”. However, Bernabè underlined that the company has sometimes been described “as a company in crisis, operating in a problematic sector, unable to take any growth initiative, suggesting the need for rescue paths. Statements of this kind - he underlined, however - are absolutely misleading and do not correspond to reality".
Meanwhile, however, Telecom Italia is down in Piazza Affari: in the light of the reorganization announced yesterday in Telco and Bernabè's words this morning, the stock, after opening down by more than 2%, marks a drop of 1,8% settling at 0,58 euro after 9,30.
