Telecom Italia discusses overhaul as appoints new CFO

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MILAN — Telecom Italia (TIM) administrators had been locked in talks on Monday over a plan to reorganize Italy’s greatest telecoms group, as newly appointed chief govt Pietro Labriola makes an attempt to forge an alternative choice to a takeover by U.S. fund KKR.

Labriola has reunited for the duty with a former colleague at TIM’s Brazilian subsidiary with the choice of Adrian Calaza as its new chief monetary officer, two sources near the matter mentioned on Monday.

The assembly of TIM’s board started at round 1300 GMT to debate Lariola’s standalone plan in response to KKR’s 10.8 billion euro ($12.2 billion) strategy, which prime shareholder, French media firm Vivendi, has mentioned is simply too low.

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Calaza will take over the position from present TIM CFO Giovanni Ronca on March 1, the sources informed Reuters, including {that a} formal announcement was anticipated later within the day.

Labriola additionally labored for the Brazilian arm earlier than final month turning into CEO of the debt-laden former Italian telephone monopoly.

TIM is contemplating splitting its home enterprise into an infrastructure entity and a separate service arm, seeking to unlock worth and facilitate a long-mooted merger with state-backed rival Open Fiber.

Such a transfer has been advocated by Italian state lender CDP, which controls Open Fiber and is Telecom Italia’s second-largest investor. Beneath Labriola’s plan, which has but to be finalized and could be offered to buyers on March 3, sources have mentioned a so-called NetCo would come with all of TIM’s fiber and copper community infrastructure and submarine cable unit Sparkle.

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Sources have beforehand mentioned it was unlikely TIM would take any agency stance on the KKR proposal earlier than early March.

The community firm would assume a major a part of Telecom Italia’s internet debt and many of the group’s 42,500 home employees, sources aware of the matter mentioned.

The service firm would concentrate on promoting a big portfolio of merchandise, from connectivity to cloud, to completely different teams reminiscent of shoppers, SMEs and large company and public administration shoppers, and would come with TIM’s Brazilian operations, the identical sources mentioned. ($1 = 0.8843 euros) (Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Modifying by Keith Weir, David Holmes and Alexander Smith)