It is the largest Italian telecommunications services provider in revenues and subscribers. It was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most prominent of which was SIP, the former state monopoly telephone operator in Italy.[7][8][9]
The company's stock is traded in the Borsa Italiana. The Italian State has exercised the "Golden Power" on TIM since 2017, which allows the government to take a number of actions when the strategic interests of the country are concerned.
TIM Group has also a subsidiary in Brazil, known as TIM Brasil, with 72.6 million customers.[10] The brand covers over 114 million customers worldwide.[11]
As April 2024, Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Italy (72.9%) and Brazil (27.1%).
SIP was a state monopoly from 1964 to 1996 and Italian people had to pay the "Canone Telecom" (a line rental charge of about €120 per year, plus hardware rental and other minor costs) in order to have a phone at home.
1994–2005: Telecom Italia, Telecom Italia Mobile and DSL services
By 2001, the company was in debt and was acquired by Marco Tronchetti Provera. The following year, the group released its DSL Flat service in Italy, Alice ADSL, with a download speed of 32 kbit/s and an upload speed of 8 kbit/s for €40/month plus a monthly based tax of €14.57, the "Canone Telecom", besides the mandatory monthly bills for home telephone numbers (a home telephone number was required for ADSL service). Telecom Italia Media, the group's multimedia company, was formed in 2003 from SEAT Pagine Gialle, focussing its business on the television sector with La7 and MTVchannels.[18]
After the reorganization of editorial activities, Telecom Italia acquired Tin.it and Virgilio from Telecom Italia Media in 2005 .[19]
Telecom Italia reported mounting debts in 2005, and, one year later, CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera resigned.[23]
In 2007 the company was bought by Telco, a consortium of Telefónica and several Italian banks.[24]
Telefónica owned 46% of Telco, the holding company that controlled 22% of Telecom Italia.
In late 2013, Telefónica announced its intention to acquire the entirety of Telco by January 2014, potentially becoming Telecom Italia's largest shareholder.[25][26] The plan, however, is being challenged by the Brazilian competition authority since Telefónica and Telecom Italia, with Vivo and TIM respectively, are the two largest telephone companies competing in Brazil.
It was revealed in October 2015 that shareholders Vivendi would raise their stakes further in the company from its current level of 15.49%.[33] As of May 2017, Vivendi owns 24.6% of the company with Vivendi's CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine becoming executive chairman of Telecom Italia.[34] Amos Genish is the new CEO since 28 September 2017 and he has been criticized to have fired 4500 Telecom Italia employees in June 2018.[35] He has been substituted by Luigi Gubitosi, who became the new CEO on 18 November 2018.[36]
In 2016, following the rebranding that led to the adoption of the single TIM brand, the parent company also decided to change its identity. The company name of Telecom Italia S.p.A. it was in fact changed to TIM S.p.A., however still maintaining the previous name on some occasions.[37]
On March 7, 2024 at the TIM Capital Market Day presentation, the stock collapsed during the day with -23.79%, with a price of €0.2118.[39]
During the day approximately more 13% of the share capital was traded.[40][41]
It has a market cap of $5.02 Billion.
The following day the stock closed the trading day up by +4.82% at a price of €0.222. Consob is investigating the stock collapse of March 7, 2024.[42]
On 8 March 2024, it has a market cap of $6.85 Billion.
On Monday 11 March 2024, after an emergency cda meeting called the day before, on Sunday, further data are specified to the market, the stock has a further decline of -4.59% returning to the closing of the stock market session at the price of €0.2118, same price as Thursday 7 March 2024. Despite the purchase on the market of 500,000 shares by the CEO, Pietro Labriola, investors are not inclined to support the business development plan presented by the CEO.[43][44][45]
On March 14, 2024, the stock closed the trading day up by +3.49% at a price of €0.2197.[46]
On March 21, 2024, according to the Financial Times, the shares collapsed after the presentation of the business development plan for bearish positions of around 1 billion euros.[47][48]
The stock closed the trading day down by -4.03% at a price of €0.2143.
On May 29, 2024, the first quarterly report of 2024 is presented. The group's total revenues amounted to 3.9 billion euros, up 1.2% year on year. However, net debt after lease rises by another billion to 21.4 billion.[49]
As of May 2024 TIM has a market cap of $5.77 Billion. On May 29, 2024, the shares, before the presentation of the quarterly report, closed trading at €0.2452.
On May 30, 2024, the stock opened with a sharp decline and lost up to 10% over the course of the trading day, but around 5.15 pm before the close of trading the news arrived that the European Union had approved the sell of the network at KKR and then the stock has a vertical rise with a gain of +1.55% closing at a price of €0.249.[50][51][52]
On 12 June 2024 Moody's improves its rating on Tim, raising it to Ba3 from B1.[53][54]on 1 July 2024 the transfer of the network to KKR takes place, with a debt reduction of 22 billion euros.[55] On the trading day of 1 July 2024, the TIM stock closes at €0.226 +1.12%.[56][57]
The operation values the network at a total of 18.8 billion euros, expandable up to 22 billion with the earn outs also linked to the possible merger between Netco and Open Fiber. Technically, the operation was carried out by giving Fibercop[58] the business unit including the fixed network and wholesale activities. Finally Fibercop was taken over Optics Bidco controlled by KKR.[59][60][61][62]
On 9 July 2024, S&P, after the sale of the network to the KKR, promoted the TIM group to BB from the previous B+, with the outlook remaining stable.[63]
On July 11, 2024, the share price closed the trading day at €0.2408 +1.48% and TIM group has a market cap of $5.70 Billion.
Unfortunately, Vivendi's complaints about the sale of TIM's network, with a legal dispute at the Milan court, where the sentence is expected on November 5, 2024, on July 22, 2024, the TIM stock lost the gains acquired last week, and closed trading at a price of €0.2325 with a loss of -4.79%.[64][65]
On July 23, 2024, the share price closed the trading day at €0.2258. On July 24, 2024, the contracts in place by TIM for the rental of the network now owned by NetCo, or FiberCop, are published, approximately 2 billion euros every year until 2029 up to 2.5 billion euro to 2039. Onerous contracts for TIM that do not compensate for the revenues of between 100 and 170 million euros to provide TIM Datacenters and the mobile network to FiberCop.[66]
For this reason the stock closes at the price of €0.2254, down by -0.18%. However, it appears that the quarterly data to be published on July 31, 2024, may provide further improvements on debt, a further reduction of 0.5 or 0.6 billion euros.[67]
On July 31, 2024, Tim presented its half-yearly results, with a debt that after the sale of the network settles at 8.1 billion euros, with a further reduction of 0.6 billion expected for the end of the year. TIM had a turnover of 7.1 billion euros (+3.5%) and an EBITDA of 2.1 (+9.4%).[68]Fitch, following Moody's and S&P, upgraded the rating to BB with a stable outlook.
On August 8, 2024, CEO Labriola increased his shareholding in TIM to 4.5 million ordinary shares.[69]
On August 14, 2024, CEO Labriola specifies that the network rental costs are lower than what was reported in the newspapers in recent days and are approximately 1.3 billion euros per year, which must also be taken into account the lower network management and personnel costs.[70]
TIM also sells additional shares of INWIT, approximately 10%. Shares sold to Impulse I for approximately €10.43 per share.[71]
On August 19, 2024, TIM announces a partnership with Nokia to enhance the 5G mobile network in Brazil. Following the announcement, the stock closes the trading day with a price of €0.2361 +3.92%.[72]
On October 2, 2024, TIM examines the proposal formulated by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance together with the Asterion fund for the purchase of the entire share of Sparkle. TIM would thus conclude the debt restructuring process by collecting an additional 700 million euros.[73]
After many days of trading TIM shares on the rise or at least appreciating, unfortunately on 23 October 2024, the stocks are suddenly falling again due to the corruption charges formulated by the Guardia di Finanza and the Rome Prosecutor's Office against the director Simone De Rose, head of the Procurement function office of TIM Group and Emilio Graziano, manager of NTT Data Italia.[74]
TIM immediately appoints a new manager, Giampaolo Leone. TIM evaluates a request for compensation for damages to the dishonest employee and collaborates with the Guardia di Finanza inspectors in the investigation.[75]
On November 5, 2024, the subsidiary TIM Brasil has continued to show strong growth in revenues and profits, confirming itself as a strong cash flow generator for the group.
[76][77]
Telecom Italia Mobile illegal charging money for "free" Internet providing renewals
Telecom Italia Mobile illegally charged money for Internet providing renew subscriptions for 5 years to its customers during the "free" subscription renewals.[82]
Fraud in Brazilian prepaid mobile lines
On 8 August 2012, TIM Brasil became involved in a massive scandal in Brazilian news after the release of report by the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency Anatel.[83]
The report points that on TIM's prepaid voice plan (24.7% market share), called "Infinity" (in which the user pays roughly US$0.12 for each unlimited time call), the calls were intentionally dropped by the company, forcing the customers to make (and pay for) new calls to keep talking. In just one day, 8.1 million calls were dropped and the total profit was approximately $2 million. Upon release of the report, the Public Ministry of the Paraná State filed a lawsuit against TIM asking that it stop selling new mobile lines in Brasil and pay a multimillion-dollar fine for the damages against consumers.[84]
Operations
The Telecom Italia Group provides phone landline services and mobile services in Italy, GSM mobile phone services in Italy and Brazil through its TIM and TIM Brasilsubsidiaries, and DSL Internet and telephony services in Italy and San Marino (through Telecom Italia San Marino). It also operates in international telecommunications services for other operators and corporations, through its subsidiary Telecom Italia Sparkle. In 2013, the total amount of the company's debt was about 26 billion €.[85] Telecom Italia has 66,025 employees.
Telecom Italia also controls Olivetti, a manufacturer of computer peripherals and mobile phones. On March 31, 2014, Telecom Italia led both the direct fixed access lines market with a 62% share, and the mobile postpaid segment with a 45% market share. In the mobile "prepaid" segment Telecom Italia owned a 31.5% market share together with Vodafone.[86]
After the merger of Wind and 3 Italy, approved on August 6, 2015, Telecom Italia is now the country's second largest carrier with 30 million customers, followed by Vodafone with 25 million customers.[87] Telecom Italia has preserved its leadership on the direct fixed access lines market and the mobile postpaid segment.[88]
High debt issue
The high accumulated debt was mainly due to the 1999 takeover bid carried out by Roberto Colaninno, who acquired the company and subsequently offloaded the purchase costs onto the company itself.[89][90]
Telecom Italia S.p.A. deals with a total debt of 27 billion Euro as of the end of 2019.[91] Moody rated the debt with a B1 grade negative outlook in 2015.[92]
As of the end of 2023, the net financial debt after lease for the TIM Group stood at €20.3 billion. Additionally, the adjusted net financial debt was €25.7 billion.[93]
Removing high debt
On 1 July 2024, with the finalization of the sale of the network to KKR, the debt was reduced by €22 billion ($23.6 billion). So TIM Group no longer has high debt. [94][95][96]
The remaining debt is in sharp reduction.[97][98]
Less than €7.5 billion by the end of 2024.[68]
Telecom Italia promotes a sustainability strategy including both environmental and social issues: in June 2014 it signed an agreement with A2A to buy energy only from renewable sources.[101]
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