Telecom Italy and Vivendi have filed an appeal with the Court of Milan against the decision of the Board of Statutory Auditors to integrate the work agenda of the shareholders' meeting. Telecom communicates it in a note, specifying that it has asked the judges to adopt urgent provisions by the date of the Shareholders' Meeting, convened for 24 April.
THEaddendum to the agenda had been requested by Elliott, an American fund that recently acquired a stake in the company, and provides for the revocation of the six directors appointed by Vivendi (accused of conflict of interest) to be replaced with six other directors proposed by Elliott himself and with of independence.
Vivendi's response came a few days later with the en masse resignations of the seven directors he appointed plus those of Giuseppe Recchi – the first effective from 24 April, the second immediate from 22 March – a decision that brought the entire Board of Directors to lapse . Furthermore, the French controlling shareholder took time by postponing the assembly on the renewal of the Board of Directors to May 4th.
At this point, the Franco-American confrontation in Telecom will be decided with the counting of votes in the assembly. According to rumors reported by Repubblica, Elliott would count in addition to the support of CDP (close to 5%), also on that of BlackRock (at 4,9%) and of other Italian investors who overall would have around 5% of the capital (in particular Mediolanum, Eurizon and Anima, which would each have around 1%). In this way, the US fund would already have the support of around 24% of the capital, the same stake in the hands of Vivendi, the largest shareholder with 23,9% of Telecom. On the other side, that of Vivendi, instead it seems that French funds have moved to help Vincent Bolloré. According to some rumors reported by Il Sole 24 Ore, French funds with a potential 5% are also behind the whirlwind trade of recent days. Today the Telecom Italia share is down in Piazza Affari
Meanwhile, Thursday the Government intervened in the Telecom game with a double decision. The Council of Ministers resolved not to exercise the golden power over the participation of Cdp and to postpone the procedure for the possible sanction to Tim (again by virtue of the golden power) for the violation of the communication obligations by Vivendi, who should have made it known that he held de facto control of the Italian TLC.
