After more than five hours, the extraordinary board of directors convened at the beginning of the afternoon ended with the resignation of Luigi Gubitosi, managing director since November 2018 of the largest Italian telecoms group, of which the French Vivendi holds nearly 24%, according to a statement released in the evening.

He was replaced by Pietro Labriola, who headed the Brazilian activities of the company, while the chairman of the board of directors Salvatore Rossi will take over a large part of the functions of Mr. Gubitosi, specifies the text.

In addition, the board of directors of Telecom Italia has set up an ad hoc committee to study the proposal made on Monday by the KKR fund, a non-binding "expression of interest" in the amount of almost 11 billion euros. euros, to buy back the entire share capital of Telecom Italia.

This coup de theater is not really one, whereas Vivendi, the main shareholder of Telecom Italia since 2015, with today 23.75% of the capital, was very critical of the management of Mr. Gubitosi, who did not not been able to reverse the fall in the share price of Telecom Italia (TIM).

Telecom Italia saw its net profit plummet by 98.1% in the first nine months of the year MAURO PIMENTEL AFP / Archives

The French group controlled by the Breton business magnate Vincent Bolloré, which considered the KKR offer undervalued, "has no intention of selling its stake" in the Italian operator, a spokesperson for Vivendi told AFP Tuesday.

Contacted Friday evening, neither Vivendi nor KKR responded to AFP's requests.

Delay in optical fiber

Eleven of the fifteen directors, including those of Vivendi, had requested this convocation of the board of directors on Friday, in order to "challenge the management" - which they even suspected of having gone to seek KKR - on the group's disappointing results, had entrusted a source close to the media giant.

The operational difficulties of Telecom Italia, which saw its net profit collapse by 98.1% over the first nine months of the year to 22 million euros, come in particular from a delay in the deployment of optical fiber , divided in the peninsula into two competing networks.

In August 2020, Tim approved a single national fiber optic network project to accelerate the development of high and very high speed internet.

This network was to be the result of the merger between the Open Fiber optical fiber network, which will come under the control of the Italian Caisse des Dépôts (CDP), a public body, and that of FiberCop, a new company which now brings together networks of Tim and the Internet service provider Fastweb, in which KKR has invested.

The Chairman of the Management Board of Vivendi Arnaud de Puyfontaine, during a general meeting of the group on April 19, 2018 in Paris ERIC PIERMONT AFP / Archives

According to an agreement concluded in 2020 between Telecom Italia and CDP, its second shareholder behind Vivendi, the Italian operator was to own at least 50.1% of this future single national network (AccessCo).

While Italian media evoked a possible abandonment of this project by the Italian state, Tim assured at the end of July "to continue his dialogue" with the CDP "to define common strategic initiatives aimed at accelerating the digitization of the country in various fields, including including the network ".

In Italy, Vivendi (owner of Canal + in particular) had also had trouble with the Mediaset television group, controlled by the Berlusconi family, over an abandoned common content platform project.

But the two groups have just made peace, after several years of litigation.

The takeover of Tim by KKR would require the green light from the Italian government, the activity of Telecom Italia being considered a national strategic asset.

KKR already owns 37.5% of Fibercop, a joint venture with Tim and the Italian company Fastweb which develops optical fiber in the peninsula.

© 2021 AFP