Tim chose the new CEO: it's Amos Genish, current general manager who is co-opted to the board of directors and assumes the executive powers envisaged by the statute. This was decided unanimously by the board of directors of the telephone group which met in Rome on Thursday afternoon. Arnaud de Puyfontaine, executive chairman, retains powers over the definition of strategies and development guidelines for the group, the latter in agreement with the managing director. The vice president Giuseppe Recchi obtains the organizational responsibility of the Security function, specifies the press release released by Tim, "responsible - among other things - for the supervision of every activity and asset relevant for the purposes of security and national defense within TIM and of the other Italian companies of the Group (in particular: TI Sparkle SpA and Telsy SpA). A delicate point given the government's intention to resort to special powers (golden power) right on Sparkle and Telsy, the companies that enclose the submarine cables for intercontinental communications. Just Thursday afternoon, the golden power committee, set up in Palazzo Chigi, completed the investigation into the obligation to notify Vivendi of the control and decided to proceed: now Tim risks a fine of 300 million (and maybe more). The decision, linked to the legislation on special powers, is contested by the telephone group: "There was no notification obligation - group sources say - having never adopted any resolution, deed or operation that had the effect of changing ownership of control or the availability of the electronic communications network subject to the legal provisions on golden power, a network which has therefore always remained under the full ownership, control and availability of Tim".
The dispute comes after Consob challenged Vivendi de facto control over Tim, objecting among other things, that the Strategy Committee and the Appointments and Remuneration Committee as well as the Control and Risk Committee were characterized by the majority presence of directors drawn from the Vivendi list. Since Thursday, however, the Board has decided to entrust Giuseppe Recchi with the presidency of the Strategic Committee while leaving its composition unchanged.
“We have a clear long-term vision: we want to bring TIM back to its proper glories, making a decisive contribution to the digitization of the country, to the creation of Digital Italy, through investments and people. TIM must have a constructive collaboration with the institutions and the authorities: creating value for TIM means creating value for the country", he commented Arnaud de Puyfontaine. “Our goal is to transform TIM into a true Digital Telco” adds Amos Genish who then explained his idea of DigiTim in a letter to employees.
The rumors indicating the appointment of Genish as CEO at the helm of Telecom alongside Arnaud de Puyfontaine, a strong man of Vivendi who enjoys the full trust of the shareholder Vincent Bolloré, are therefore confirmed. The executive chairman gives Genish only the powers on Brand strategy & Media, for the rest, the governance structure at the top is confirmed by the board of directors with a majority vote, as noted in the press release. Which suggests that the independent directors – who also voted for Genish's appointment – have not given their formal consent to the distribution of proxies.
Until 2016, Genish was CEO of Telefonica Brazil / Vivo, the main integrated telecommunications operator in the country with over 90 million customers and whose offer includes fixed, mobile, services and entertainment. From January to July 2017, Amos Genish held the role of Chief Convergence Officer of Vivendi, with responsibility for developing the Group's convergence strategy across content, platforms and distribution. "Genish qualifies as a non-independent executive director - specifies the Tim press release - and as of today, does not own shares in Telecom Italia SpA".
The board of directors approved by majority "the principle of creating a joint venture with Canal+, intended to allow for a significant acceleration of the convergence projects between telco and media", an operation which takes the form of "an operation with a related party (being Canal+ subsidiary of Vivendi SA, which Consob has qualified as the de facto parent company of TIM)” concludes the press release from the national telephone company.
Updated Friday 30 September at 9,30am
