The leading shareholder of Telecom Italia (TIM), France’s Vivendi, has announced that it will be calling for a meeting to change the board at the Italian operator. The move comes after TIM’s board decided not to convene a shareholders meeting to confirm the appointment of Luigi Gubitosi as the company’s new chief executive or choose new auditors, which Vivendi described as “a source of disorganisation” that went against “all rules proper corporate governance”.
Vivendi, which holds a stake of around 24 percent, strongly criticised the decision to oust Amos Genish as CEO after he had lost the support of US activist fund Elliott Management, the operator’s second-largest shareholder, which seized control of the board of directors in May. The French company said it will be writing to the board before the end of the week to urge it to convene a shareholders’ meeting as soon as possible to appoint new financial auditors, revoke 5 current board members from the Elliott list of 10, above all “those who were involved in these governance issues” and propose 5 new ones.
The next scheduled shareholders' meeting to approve the company's full-year results is due to be held on 11 April 2019, said TIM last week.
