Tim, Pansa enters the council: Vivendi ends up in the corner

MILAN – The board of directors of Telecom Italia unites around the managing director Pietro Labriola and to the nomination committee, which the first shareholder Vivendi had discouraged at the meeting. In spite of all predictions the name of Luciano Carta former chairman of Leonardo indicated by the French shareholder (23.8% of Tim) and in possession of the independence requirements, is rejected in favor of that of Alessandro Pansa, currently president of Sparkle, from 2013 to 2016 Chief of Police and from 2016 to 2018 director general of the Department of Information for Security, indicated by Tim’s nomination committee, and who holds executive roles in the company does not have the independence requirements. Moreover, Pansa will go to occupy in council the place left empty by CEO of Vivendi Arnaud de Puyfontaine last January 16th. Pansa’s name received 9 out of 14 votes, including that of the president Salvatore Rossiof the ad Wheatgrassof the president of CDP Giovanni Gorno Tempini and even of Massimo Sarmichairman of Fibercop (37.5% of Kkr), but appointed to the board on the recommendation of Vivendi.

The French giant is put in a corner by the company in which he has invested over 3 billion euros, and in a certain sense also by the government which has so far claimed to remain neutral, but indirectly gives a signal to the French with the vote of the president of the CDP. Pansa’s choice was motivated by the fact that he has a profile similar to Carta’s, but having been with the company for four years, he knows the situation well from the inside. Moreover, Vivendi would have indicated Leonardo’s former president, without attributing his candidacy, a legal technicality that has convinced some directors to support Pansa.

The sale of Netco is approaching

Moral: if the reasons of Vivendi, who has been opposing the “sale” of the networks for months, were in the minority on the board of directors, now they will be even more so. In fact, an extraordinary board of directors is convened next Thursday to review and vote on the two offers for Netco, Sparkle’s primary and secondary network and submarine cables. It is not clear whether Pansa will be able to express himself in this regard, given that he is president of Sparkle, but a similar veto had also been lifted on Sarmi who is president of the secondary network owned by Kkr. The fact is that the majority of the board is oriented to go ahead with the sale of the Netco, e Kkr’s offer is ahead of that of Cdp-Macquarie. The US fund would be ready to let the Italian F2i fund join the consortium with 15%. On the other hand, it is unlikely that the Cdp could participate in this phase, which being a 60% shareholder of the rival Open Fiber, for Antitrust reasons could support Kkr with only 3%.

In Europe, the consolidation of telecommunications services is starting up again

Vivendi has been letting it be known for days that she is ready to convene a meeting to request the revocation of part of the Tim board of directors, which also expires at the end of the year; but at this point, any shareholders’ meeting would in any case be late and subsequent to the board of directors that has to vote on the Netco. While Tim is studying the sale of his network, the consolidation among telephone operators is restarting in Europe. Yesterday Vodafone has in fact approved the marriage of interests in England among its Uk activities, with those of the giant Anglo-Chinese H3g. Under the agreement it is envisaged that the company headed by Margherita Della Valle has 51% of the capital, and the one that in Italy controls 100% of WindTre 49%. Analysts do not exclude that the next wedding could be centered in Italy between the activities of Vodafone and those of Iliad.