Aug 12 (Reuters) – Telecom Italia (TIM) gained more than 5% on the Milan Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon after a Bloomberg report that the far-right Brothers of Italy party (Fratelli d’Italia, FdI), largely in the lead in the polls before the legislative elections in September, would be in favor of nationalizing the operator.
Already last week, an FdI official had called on the public group CDP (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, the Italian equivalent of the French Caisse des dépôts), which holds around 10% of the capital of Telecom Italia, to take a majority.
According to the stock market rules in force, a shareholder who would rise beyond 25% of the capital would be forced to launch a public purchase offer on the balance.
The FdI, the main formation of the right-wing alliance given the winner by the polls on the intentions to vote for the election of September 25, criticized the plan of the CDP aiming to buy the network activities of Telecom Italia and they advocate a sale of the group’s service activities, including the Brazilian subsidiary.
“Telecom Italia shares are boosted by rumors that an exit from the stock market will be on the agenda of the Brothers of Italy,” said a trader in Milan.
Another market participant noted that trading volumes were very low, favoring redemptions of short positions in stocks like Telecom Italia, which have fallen sharply in recent months.
Even taking into account Friday’s increase, the action of the former public telecommunications monopoly has fallen by nearly 45% since the start of the year. (Report Maria Pia Quaglia and Elvira Pollina, French version Marc Angrand, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)