Tim, forward with the negotiations with Canal+. The board of directors of the Italian group has decided to restart negotiations for future collaboration in the audiovisual content sector, "with the aim of both parties to quickly reach a positive conclusion" states the press release released by the company. Tim's Board of Directors has acknowledged the expiry of the term sheet – the preparatory document required for the purpose of closing the agreement – opening to the continuation of negotiations.
The two companies were supposed to define the terms of the joint venture by 18 January, but the negotiations took longer than expected also due to the findings raised by Consob - and even before that raised by Tim's Board of Statutory Auditors - on the fact that the project it is among related parties given the participation of Vivendi in both Tim and Canal+. The BoD therefore declared the approval resolutions already passed on 20 October and 5 December 2017 "outdated", but confirmed the strategic nature of the operation and therefore the will to go ahead and, indeed, quickly conclude the dossier.
The purpose of the joint venture is the production of a video offer for the customers of the Italian telecommunications giant through the acquisition and production of television content. This is one of the main points of the Tim 2018-2020 strategic plan, and the group led by Genesis he will give it up.
In recent weeks, the hypothesis of a inclusion of Mediaset in the joint venture with a 20% share. The operation should be seen as an attempt to overcome the tensions of the Vivendi-Premium affair in the logic of a rapprochement between Vincent Bolloré and the group led by Piersilvio Berlusconi after the events related to Mediaset Premium.
Failure to close the negotiations will allow Tim to deal with the objections received from Consob and from Board of Statutory Auditors of the company itself in recent weeks. The new phase will involve a Committee made up exclusively of all the independent members of the BoD: the procedure established for "transactions with related parties of greater significance" will therefore be applied, recalling that Canal+ is an indirect subsidiary of Vivendi, the main shareholder and de facto controlling by Tim.
The committee will be led by Lucia bald, chairman of the Control and Risk Committee, and will operate in order to express a binding opinion "on the interest, convenience and adequacy of the conditions of the initiative".
Wednesday's board meeting was the first of two very important appointments for Tim. On January 18, the group led by Amos Genish will sit down at the table with the trade unions for examine the new generational turnover plan.
