Vivendi emerged victorious from Telecom Italia’s shareholder meeting on Tuesday, attendees having voted in favour of its proposal to add four new directors to the telco’s board, while at the same time blocking its savings share conversion plan that would have diluted the French company’s stake.
The vote means that Arnaud Roy de Puyfontaine, Stéphane Roussel, Hervé Philippe and Félicité Herzog, the first three being Vivendi executives, will take their seats on the Telecom Italia board for the remainder of its term in office, increasing its membership to 17 from 13.
As a result, Vivendi representatives make up just under a quarter of the operator’s board; the firm already had one director on the board. Its stake in Telecom Italia stands at around 20.5%; according to Bloomberg, Vivendi bought around 0.4% of the company’s shares in late November.
Shareholders representing 55.67% of Telecom Italia’s o rdinary share capital attended the meeting on Tuesday.
62.5% of those present voted in favour of Telecom Italia’s plan to exchange savings shares for ordinary shares at a rate of 9.5 euro cents per share, a move that would dilute the stakes of the likes of Vivendi and French businessman Xavier Niel, who has built up a long position of just over 15%.
Telecom Italia needed 66% of the attending share capital to vote for the plan in order for it to pass. Just 1.5% voted against, but 36.1% abstained.
Vivendi, which is clearly looking to increase its influence at Telecom Italia, announced it would abstain from the vote at the weekend, making it almost impossible for the proposal to pass.
While the French media group questioned the fairness of the plan, Telecom Italia insisted it was the right move, having been "met with widespread appreciation from financial analysts."
