News
French media firm holds 22.8% of Italian incumbent, according to regulatory filing.
Vivendi has further added to its holding in Telecom Italia.
The French media company acquired additional shares between 16 February and 19 February, raising its Telecom Italia stake to 22.8%, according to an SEC filing published late last week.
Vivendi bought 190.2 million shares via open market purchases and off-market transactions
It paid €161.4 million for the shares, Reuters claimed.
Vivendi has been steadily increasing its stake in the Italian incumbent since it became the company’s biggest single shareholder in June last year.
There has been much debate over its motives, particularly in light of the fact that Vivendi had previously indicated that its strategy was to exit the telecoms space.
In December the company published an open letter in which it insisted that it would not seek to change Telecom Italia’s strategy or pursue a full merger with it.
The comments came after investors expressed concerns over its quest to increase in the size of the Telecom Italia board to include four Vivendi representatives.
Vivendi won that particular battle at a late-2015 shareholder meeting, where attendees voted in favour of the proposal that increased the number of directors on the Telecom Italia board to 17. It also succeeded in blocking Telecom Italia’s proposed savings share conversion plan.
Since then, Vivendi has kept its head down, until now, that is.
