Italian wholesale operator Open Fiber has announced the appointment of current general manager Mario Rossetti as its new CEO, replacing interim chief executive Francesca Romana Napolitano, and Barbara Marinali as new chairman, replacing Franco Bassanini, who has been named senior advisor. The appointments confirm earlier reports and arrive upon completion of the purchase of Enel’s share in Open Fiber by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) and Australian infrastructure fund Macquarie Asset Management.
Following the change of control, a meeting of Open Fiber’s shareholders appointed the new board of directors, consisting of Marinali, Rossetti, Roberta Battaglia, Nathan Luckey, Geoff Shakespeare and Alessandro Tonetti, as well as the new board of statutory auditors, comprising Angelo Colombo (chairman), Eugenio Pinto and Simona Arduini (standing auditors).
In its first meeting, the new board of directors approved Open Fiber’s 2022-2031 business plan, which aims to cover the entire country via the completion of FTTH rollouts in black areas (clusters A and B), white areas (clusters C and D) and grey areas, beginning with bids in the forthcoming government tenders under the EU-funded National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
The board also approved an agreement reached a consortium of banks (Banca Santander, Banco BPM, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, ING Bank, Intesa, Societe Generale and Unicredit) to secure committed credit lines amounting to EUR 7.175 billion, described as the biggest ever infrastructure funding deal in EMEA telecommunications networks.
The announcements come over 6 months after energy group Enel agreed to divest its entire 50 percent stake in Open Fiber to Macquarie and CDP for a combined EUR 2.65 billion. Open Fiber’s FTTH network has so far reached nearly 13 million of the 20 million addresses targeted by its 2018-25 buildout plan, including over 8 million homes in Italy’s major cities.
