Telecom Italia's biggest shareholder opposes KKR bid

Telecom Italia recently agreed to sell its landline business to investment firm KKR for €22 billion. This deal, backed by Giorgia Meloni's Italian government, was finally approved by TIM on November 5 without making it conditional on a vote by shareholders. Though the board voted 11-3 in favor of the deal, Vivendi, a French media group and Telecom Italia's biggest shareholder with a 24 percent stake, opposed this deal.

Vivendi claims that Telecom Italia has only trampled upon the rights of its shareholders by accepting this deal. "Vivendi deeply regrets that TIM’s Board of Directors accepted KKR’s offer to buy TIM’s network without first informing and requesting a vote from its shareholders, thus contravening applicable governance rules,” Vivendi said in a statement.

“Vivendi’s reasoned requests, expressed through multiple communications to the Board of Directors, the Statutory Auditors, and the market regulator (Consob), aimed at protecting all shareholders and preventing such a prejudicial situation, have been completely ignored. TIM’s Board of Directors has thus deprived each shareholder of the right to express their opinion in the Shareholders’ meeting, as well as the related right of withdrawal for dissenting shareholders."