The executive chairman of Telecom Italia, Franco Bernabè, is oriented towards presenting his resignation to the board of directors of the group tomorrow. Its purpose is to avoid divisions in a company whose shareholding is deeply divided between Telco's strong shareholders (Telefonica, Generali, Mediobanca, Intesa Sanpaolo) on one side and international investors and small shareholders on the other. Telco is preparing to avoid default by selling the profitable Tim Brasil while the rest of the shareholders would like a recapitalization of around 3 billion euros, as proposed by Bernabè, to secure the group and avoid a nefarious downgrading which would make the debt unsustainable.
Following Bernabè's resignation, Marco Patuano will remain CEO of Telecom while the arrival of Massimo Sarmi from the post office seems to fade away, at least for now. The new president of Telecom should, in all likelihood, be Aldo Minucci, president of ANIA (the insurance Confindustria) on a Generali basis and member of the board of directors of the telephone group since its privatization in 1997.
