Italy’s telecom unions call for greater presence of state in TIM

Italy’s main telecom unions on Wednesday called for a greater presence of the state in Telecom Italia (TIM) and for the Italian government to reconsider a plan aimed at creating a single ultra-fast broadband network for the country.

“We believe that the current majority shareholder (of TIM) has created and fed tensions within the company, aiming at weakening the management over the years. For this reason we keep hoping in a greater presence of the state (in TIM),” SLC-CGIL, FISTel-CISL and UILCOM-UIL said in a statement.

France’s Vivendi is TIM’s largest investor, with a stake of 24% in the phone group.

U.S. fund KKR has proposed to buy the debt-laden former phone monopoly for 33 billion euros. Reuters