Telecom Italia is considering a plan to raise EUR 2 billion from existing shareholders including Spain's Telefonica, reports Bloomberg citing three unnamed sources. The debt-laden operator, which lost its chairman and was downgraded to junk status earlier in the month, suffered its steepest intraday share price decline in four years on the back of the rumours that it might propose a rights issue at its next scheduled board meeting on 07 November. Other proposals to cut the operator's near EUR 29 billion debt include the cancellation of a dividend, a spin-off of its fixed network and a sale of prized Brazilian assets, although the latter two options appear to have been ruled out for the time being. The rumoured EUR 2 billion capital hike is smaller than the EUR 3-5 billion cash call proposed by former chairman Franco Bernabe, who resigned on 03 October after a clash over strategy with core investors led by Telefonica.
