Telecom Italia CEO says group will continue to retain ownership of telephone network (translated)
Telecom Italia (TIM) [BIT:TIT] will continue to retain ownership of its telephone network now and in the future, Italian language daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported. The report cited TIM CEO Amos Genish who said that discussions with the Italian government on the future of the telephone network did not touch upon its ownership or TIM's control of the asset.
The item also cited Genish as ruling out an IPO for the network, should it be spun off into an separate entity, noting that no telecom company in the world had taken such a step.
TIM is presently in talks with the Italian government over the future of the network in order to meet concerns about network neutrality and access. The item item added that there has been speculation that the government might use the special powers it has over companies deemed to be important to the national interest to force TIM to spin off the network into a separate company.
As previously reported, the aim would be to ensure that Vivendi [EPA:VIV], the French media group that is TIM's controlling shareholder, is restricted in terms of management and control of the telephone network.
TIM has a market cap of EUR 14.34bn.