((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))
Activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners is proposing to nominate an outgoing Google executive as candidate for the post of CEO of Telecom Italia (TIM) TLIT.MI, in opposition to Pietro Labriola’s candidacy for a second term.
In a document outlining Bluebell’s vision for TIM, seen by Reuters, the company is nominating Laurence Lafont, Google Cloud GOOGL.O’s outgoing vice president for strategic industries in Europe, as a candidate for TIM’s chief executive officer role.
TIM investors are due to meet on April 23 to appoint a new board of directors.
Representatives for Bluebell, which owns a 0.5% stake in TIM, were not available for comment. Bluebell presented a list of candidates to TIM’s board of directors last month, without indicating a candidate for the position of CEO.
The vote comes at a crucial time for the former telephone monopoly in difficulty, which seeks to reorganize itself around the sale of its national fixed telephone access network to the American fund KKR KKR.N.
In the document, Bluebell describes TIM’s decision to sell its valuable landline network to KKR KKR.N as “flawed from the start.”
“The only mandate that Bluebell has given to its board nominees is to review the status of the transaction and act in the best interest of TIM and all of its shareholders,” the document states.
Mr. Labriola, whom the outgoing TIM board proposed to reappoint, was also challenged by minority investor Merlyn Partners, which declared a 0.53% stake.
Merlyn is calling for a review of the terms of the network sale and proposing that a former TIM deputy chief executive become chief executive as part of a radical overhaul of operations.
The sale of the network, supported by the Italian government, which indirectly controls 10% of TIM, is valued at 22 billion euros. More than half of TIM’s national staff will be transferred to the divested network business as part of the transaction, which aims to reduce TIM’s debt.
TIM’s main investor, Vivendi VIV.PA, questioned the viability of the business left behind and challenged the sale in court.
Vivendi, which left TIM’s board last year after a series of unsuccessful negotiations with the government over TIM’s future, could use its 24% stake to block Labriola’s reappointment if he chose to support an alternative slate of candidates.