Telecom Italia concludes savings share conversion ahead of Poste's bid
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FILE PHOTO: Telecom Italia (TIM) logo and stock graph are seen displayed in this illustration taken, May 3, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
MILAN, May 21 (Reuters) - Telecom Italia is set to conclude on Thursday a transaction to turn a special class of shares carrying higher investor remuneration into ordinary stock, in a long-awaited move that removes a source of extra costs for the group.
Telecom Italia (TIM) launched the conversion plan in December after pocketing €1 billion ($1.16 billion) from a court victory.
Most TIM savings shareholders accepted the offer in a voluntary phase that ended on Tuesday with 93.5% take-up; the remainder faces mandatory conversion on Thursday, ahead of delisting.
Davide Leone, whose financial investment firm started amassing TIM savings shares in 2024 and became their main holder, said the move was a bet on "a normalisation" process for TIM.
"One step had to be the simplification of the dual share classes, which others in the past had identified as an issue and repeatedly tried to solve."
After an ill‑fated privatisation in the late 1990s, TIM has spent years in restructuring mode, culminating in the sale of its fixed-line network in 2024 to shed debt and an expected return into public hands later this year following a takeover by state-backed conglomerate Poste Italiane.
Poste's bid comes amid the prospect of consolidation in the telecoms sector, where harsh price competition has squeezed margins, making looming 5G investments hard to sustain.
Leone, who will own around 3% of TIM after converting a 13% savings share stake, declined to comment directly on Poste's bid.
However, he noted that Poste's investment in TIM aligned Italy with other major European countries where the state has kept a holding in former phone monopolies.
He said he seized the chance to start buying TIM's savings shares in 2024 when a business plan sparked a "bad market reaction", pushing prices to "levels which we regarded as long-term attractive valuations."
($1 = 0.8618 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Chiara Rodriquez)
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