"There is no alternate plan." The Elliott Fund, a few days before the Tim assembly on May 4th, relaunches with a statement. But this time the relaunch serves to soften the tone and appear more conciliatory after Tim's general manager Amos Genish has taken a position that essentially establishes this track: "without the business plan already approved and the confidence in its implementation, I'm leaving the leadership of the group".
By lightening the positions on the dividend for which it now accepts that it can be returned to its distribution after reaching investment grade, the American Fund specifies in a note published on the Transforming Tim website that "it seeks to offer constructive ideas to improve the plan to create of Tim's value presented by Genish on March 7th. There is no alternative business plan. Elliott and its independent candidates fully support Genish and are encouraged by Genish."
Also on the spin-off of the network, the Elliott Fund specifies that it has "confidence in the ability of management and an independent board to evaluate these initiatives in the interest of maximizing shareholder value". On this point, however, according to what sources very close to the dossier stressed to Radiocor, Elliott's idea remains, on which an independent board will then be able to express its opinion, to carry out the merger with Open Fiber, creating the Terna of telecommunications.
The fund's move, which seems to be going towards Genish, the current general manager of Telecom and name number one on the Vivendi list, comes after the Israeli manager essentially reiterated the positions expressed in a previous interview with Il Sole 24 Ore. That is: he is ready to stay in Telecom, but on condition that the shareholders vote for his industrial plan.
The headline of the Sunday Telegraph, "Telecom Italia boss ready to quit over activist" was judged misleading by the Italian group which considered it "ambiguous" in a note on Sunday evening, referring to the version of the "Sole 24 Ore". Amos Genish, the note reads, "never said in his interview that he wanted to resign, but simply that: "if the Vivendi list does not receive the majority of votes, because this is clearly the only list that supports our industrial plan in the longer term, then I strongly believe my position as CEO would be difficult to sustain.” Now, after Elliott's latest clarifications, it will be necessary to understand whether Genish's position, which increasingly seems to tip the balance in the battle between the fund and Vivendi, will change or not. but Vivendi, in view of the meeting on May 4th, does not hide his concern about Genish's future: "Any resignation from him would be destabilizing".
