Telecom Italia’s top investor criticises CEO bonus payment

Telecom Italia’s top investor Vivendi has criticised the mechanism to award salary bonus payments for the chief executive and the top management of Italy’s biggest phone group, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

France’s Vivendi, which owns a 24% stake in Telecom Italia, is piling pressure on the company’s directors and CEO over an ongoing process to sell its landline grid.

The sale of the grid, Telecom Italia’s most valuable asset, is a key part of CEO Pietro Labriola’s strategy for turning around the former phone monopoly and slashing its debts.

The sources said that in a letter to Telecom Italia’s board of directors Vivendi criticised the mechanism for calculating the CEO’s salary bonus based on the group’s 2022 results, saying any reward for the top management was unwarranted given the company’s falling core profit.

Based on performance-linked mechanisms, the CEO has earned a total salary bonus of about 2.5 million euros in 2022.

Shareholders of Telecom Italia’s will be called to vote on the group’s remuneration policy at a meeting scheduled for April 20. They will also cast a non-binding vote on payments earned by top executives in 2022. Reuters