
Telecom Italia (TIM) has confirmed the receipt of a request from activist fund Elliott and other investors to include a motion to replace six board members, including its chairman, in the agenda of its shareholder meeting scheduled for 24 April. In a statement, TIM said its board is due to meet in the coming days to decide on the request from investment funds Elliott International LP, Elliott Associates LP and the Liverpool Limited Partnership to replace the operator’s chairman and Vivendi CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine plus five other directors, not including CEO Amos Genish.
The five other board members the investors want to step down are Herve Philippe, Frederic Crepin, Giuseppe Recchi, Felicite Herzog and Anna Jones, with the suggested replacements named as Fulvio Conti, Massimo Ferrari, Paola Giannotti De Ponti, Luigi Gubitosi, Dante Roscini and Rocco Sabelli.
Elliott’s move comes after it built a stake in TIM in a bid to counter the operator’s largest investor Vivendi and improve strategy, value and governance. La Repubblica reported that the fund has so far declared that it owns 2.53 percent of ordinary TIM stock but market sources suggest it could soon increase the stake to over 5 percent.
A Vivendi spokesman recently confirmed that its CEO Arnaud De Puyfontaine could suspend his executive powers as chairman of Telecom Italia (TIM) to lend his support to a debate on strategy at the operator.