The story of the sale of TIM, the company known until two years ago as Telecom Italia, that is the main telecommunications company in Italy, has had a twist in the last few days. Last night the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), the finance company of the Ministry of Economy, announced that it will collect up to 5 percent of TIM's shares next week. According to analysts, the entry of an institutional company such as CDP among the shareholders accelerates the process that should lead to the separation of the telephone network from the main company, a measure that for several years has been suggested to TIM to better manage the network, one of its most valuable assets (as well as strategic for national interests).
It was understood that a new phase was beginning at the beginning of March, when the Elliott investment fund – already famous in Italy for having lent 303 million euros to the Chinese entrepreneur Yonghong Li and allowing him to de facto buy AC Milan – quickly bought about 5 per cent of the shares and proposed a change at the top of the company, controlled at 23.94 per cent by the French company Vivendi.
Elliott's objective immediately appeared to aim at a rapid spin-off of the network to reduce TIM's overall debt but above all to return to distributing dividends to shareholders (ie also to Elliott himself). By placing itself at the head of the minority shareholders, the fund was able to place the removal of six directors close to Vivendi on the agenda of the meeting called for May 4.
The CDP – that is, the government – took the opportunity to join the game, but above all to be able to have its say in a new company that would contain only TIM's telephone network, of evident national interest. The hypothesis that CDP could enter such a company has been around for more than ten years: it had already been presented in 2006 by the then economic advisor of Romano Prodi's government, Angelo Rovati, at the end of a study on Telecom. The outgoing Minister of Economic Development, Carlo Calenda, had also praised this possibility in February, when TIM presented a draft project for the spin-off of the network.
According to analysts, the long-term idea of the government – which according to ANSA has agreed on CDP's entry into TIM “with the main political forces” – would be to merge the new company with Open Fiber, a government subsidiary that owns a network of optical fiber, and thus create a single managing body of the national network, in order to more easily develop the spread of ultra-broadband for Internet connection. Merger and long-term plans aside, it is understandable that the government wants to participate in a company that contains TIM's fixed network. Il Foglio reminds us that still today we are passed on various sensitive data for national security such as “communications from the police (including electronic bracelets), data from the tax registry and INPS, bank details”.
CDP will have roughly a week to collect 5 percent of the shares; if he manages to do so by April 13, he will be able to participate in the assembly of April 24, that is, the one in which Elliott will formally ask to replace the six members close to Vivendi. Before that date, however, there is another relevant deadline: by April 9, the deadline for presenting candidates for the new board of directors expires, and it must be understood whether Elliott will have the support of the other minority shareholders – in addition to that of CDP – to subtract the majority from Vivendi.
