Uncertainty and tension are rising over the telecom Italia meeting on Friday, which promises to leave its mark as the most electrifying proxy fight in the history of Italian finance. According to observers, Blackrock could vote in favor of the revocation of the Board of Directors while, on the opposite side, many of the funds against it could now decide to participate.
Until last week, Blackrock had not deposited the shares thus fueling the idea that the funds opposed to the revocation would decide not to participate to avoid any embarrassment and to favor Telco anyway, increasing its relative share. Today, however, the US fund has decided to register with a share of 5,9% of the capital. A move that paves the way for the hypothesis that Blackrock may decide to speak in favor of the revocation of the Board of Directors to deny that it is in any way close to Telco.
In fact, Consob's lights on Blackrock came on after a notification to the SEC (but not to Consob) revealed that the US fund had doubled its stake in Telecom on 29 November, thus consolidating, with a share exceeding 10% its position as second largest shareholder behind Telco. In reality, explained the note from the US company, this figure also includes the investment in the convertible, which must be taken into account in US legislation (and, apparently, not in Italian legislation). Thus, the fund communicated to Consob that it holds a share of 7,783% from 5% last October and that it has not exceeded the relevant threshold of 10% as the remainder is linked to the convertible. In an interview, Vegas said that Consob could consider freezing the share exceeding the 5,1% already declared by Blackrock.
In any case, there are those who point out that the maybes in the field are in any case lined up in such a way as to sterilize a vote in favor of the revocation of the Board of Directors, a motion advanced by the minority shareholder Fossati. For the managers of Eurizon and Pioneer, funds of Intesa and Unicredit, for example, the Telecom case is anomalous and therefore it is not certain that they will vote according to the indications of the proxies, who in their case suggest supporting the Fossati motion. Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of Unicredit, believes that Assogestioni cannot contribute to a turnaround in the Telecom Italia board of directors. On the Stock Exchange, the stock is up 5,66%. A report by Equita speaks of chaos and speculative appeal, above all after the words of Vegas (“If Vodafone or someone else arrives, has the money and launches the takeover bid, so be it”).
