Vivendi legal threat clouds Telecom Italia grid deal

By Elvira Pollina

MILAN (Reuters) -Shares in Telecom Italia (BIT:) (TIM) slipped on Monday after investor Vivendi (OTC:) threatened a legal challenge to the former phone monopoly’s plan to sell its network grid in a 19 billion euro ($20.4 billion) deal.

The sale to KKR would make TIM the first telecoms group in a major European country to part ways with its landline grid, and is a key plank of TIM CEO Pietro Labriola’s plan to revive the debt-laden group.

TIM said it aimed to complete the deal by next summer but hopes of a smooth relaunch for the long-troubled telecoms company were clouded by the opposition of Vivendi, which owns a 24% stake in TIM.

Vivendi, which has repeatedly expressed its reservations on the terms of the KKR deal, said late on Sunday that it considered the decision to proceed without a shareholder vote as “unlawful” and that it would use “any legal means at its disposal to challenge” the move.

In a Sunday statement announcing the board’s choice, TIM said it had listened to legal and financial advice.

The French media group has been pushing for a higher sale price and also questioned the sustainability of what will remain of TIM once the network is sold.

Paris-listed Vivendi, facing a 75% loss on its initial 4 billion euro investment in TIM, criticised the decision to go ahead with the sale without an extraordinary shareholder meeting and the option for dissenting investors to sell back their shares to the company.

Expectations are now for Vivendi to file a complaint with a Milan court in a bid to challenge the board decisions, according to two sources close to the matter.

SHARES RETREAT

After initially rising as much as 5%, TIM shares went into reverse and were off earlier lows but still down around 3% by 1620 GMT, reflecting fears of a prolonged legal case.

Investors would also be mindful that Vivendi fought a long legal battle in courts across Europe with the Berlusconi family’s Mediaset (OTC:) company, now known as MFE-MediaForEurope, over a failed 2016 pay TV deal.

To oversee an asset deemed of national strategic importance, the Italian Treasury plans to spend up to 2.2 billion euros to take up to a 20% stake in the network following its sale to KKR, which is already a minority investor in the grid.

Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti played down the threat to the deal.

“We made an offer and the TIM board accepted it. Now obviously shareholders have their rights and will exercise them in the appropriate venues, but this deal is the plan,” he told reporters on Monday.

The TIM board approved the sale with 11 directors in favour and three against after meetings that stretched from Friday until Sunday evening.

Vivendi representatives quit TIM’s board in January after a round of fruitless negotiations with the government on the future of the telecoms group.

The sale would allow TIM to reduce its financial debt by around 14 billion euros. Cash-burning TIM would also shed half of its 40,000 domestic staff and focus on its service operations.

The sale’s 18.8 billion-euro price tag, including debt, could reach 22 billion euros if certain conditions are met, TIM said.

TIM has mandated CEO Labriola to seek an improved deal for its Sparkle submarine unit. Sources said KKR valued the venture at around 650 million euros, while TIM is looking for a price tag of about a 1 billion euros. ($1 = 0.9306 euros)

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