MILAN, April 12 (Reuters) - Telecom Italia (TIM) would
be left with 6.6 billion euros ($7 billion) in cash after
repaying all of its debts, if it sold its Brazilian unit and its
domestic consumer business, activist investor Merlyn Partners
calculated.
In a document outlining its vision for TIM, Merlyn - which
holds 0.5% of the group - drew up six scenarios ahead of an
April 23 shareholder vote to name new top executives at TIM.
Four of the six scenarios are built around the proposed sale
of TIM's domestic access network to KKR, an up to 22
billion euro deal promoted by TIM CEO Pietro Labriola, who is
seeking reappointment this month.
Merlyn also studied the possibility of retaining the fixed
line network while selling the domestic consumer business and
Brazilian phone carrier TIM SA.
The plan "offers an alternative path for TIM. It addresses
any contingent scenario to make sure that the much needed
deleveraging of TIM happens as soon as possible," it said.
Merlyn is challenging the reappointment of Labriola, who has
come under pressure following a record stock plunge last month
after TIM disclosed the financial outlook for the business
emerging from the network sale.
Merlyn said TIM should focus on providing high value
connectivity and digital services to big corporate clients and
public administration customers.
"This transformation will be executed by immediately
divesting from non-core operations such as TIM Brasil already in
2024 and businesses lacking competitive advantages such as TIM
Consumer by mid-2025," the document said.
Also another activist investor, Bluebell Capital Partners,
has proposed its own slate of candidates to TIM's board of
directors and an alternative strategy.
Both Merlyn and Bluebell are looking to win support from
TIM's top investor Vivendi, which has challenged the
network sale in courts and questioned the sustainability of the
business left behind.($1 = 0.9367 euros)
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Valentina Za)