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Report claims current chairman Giuseppe Recchi to raise issue of governance with telco’s board.
The saga concerning Vivendi’s influence over Telecom Italia took yet another twist on Thursday, after a report claimed that Vivendi CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine will in fact become the telco’s chairman, despite not being elected to the role at a shareholder meeting last month.
Sources cited by Reuters said that current chairman Giuseppe Recchi, who was re-elected following the abovementioned shareholder meeting, will raise the issue of governance with the board later today.
De Puyfontaine topped a list of board candidates nominated by Vivendi – which owns 23.94% of Telecom Italia – in mid-April. The move suggested that he was being proposed as the Italian incumbent’s new chairman. However, while all of Vivendi’s nominees were elected to the board, the board itself voted to stick with Recchi as chairman, and de Puyfontaine as vice chairman.
Thursday’s report comes just days after the European Commission gave Vivendi conditional permission to take control of Telecom Italia. Vivendi sought approval in April, notifying the antitrust watchdog that in the event that all of its board nominees were elected, it would win two thirds of the board, giving it de facto control of the operator.
In return for the green light, the French media conglomerate has agreed to sell Telecom Italia’s broadcasting services arm, Persidera, in a bid to assuage competition concerns related to wholesale access to digital TV networks. These concerns arose due to the fact that Vivendi also holds a substantial minority stake in Italian broadcaster Mediaset.
However, Telecom Italia maintains that selling Persidera is not on its agenda, which begs the question: just who is in charge of the company?
If Reuters’ source proves reliable, the answer to that question could come later today, when Vivendi’s own Arnaud de Puyfontaine becomes chairman.
