Telecom Italia Sweeps Board in Power Struggle With Elliott
22 Março 2018 - 03:27PM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Sloat
Telecom Italia SpA (TIT.MI) said Thursday that its chairman and
other board members will resign as a power struggle between the
company and activist investor Elliott Management escalates.
The company will hold a shareholders meeting May 4 to appoint a
new board after Chairman Arnaud de Puyfontaine said he will resign
on April 24 along with other board members. At Telecom Italia, if a
majority of members resign, the entire board must be
reappointed.
Among those stepping down are the board members representing
Telecom Italia's main shareholder, France's Vivendi SA (VIV.FR).
The French company said the May meeting will allow shareholders "to
appoint the board members they want and which policy to
follow."
The move comes after Elliott Advisors, the U.K. arm of Elliott
Management, bought a stake in Telecom Italia and said it will seek
to replace some board members. In a letter to Telecom Italia
shareholders, Elliott made its case and also suggested selling off
part of the company's Sparkle and NetCo units.
"Poor stewardship under the Vivendi-controlled board has
resulted in deeply troubling corporate governance issues, a
valuation discount and strategic failures," the fund said last
week.
Vivendi called Elliott's initiatives "an attempt...to dismantle
Telecom Italia" and said it supports the industrial plan put
forward by Telecom Chief Executive Amos Genish.
Write to Sarah Sloat at sarah.sloat@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 22, 2018 14:12 ET (18:12 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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