Are BlackRock and the French cripple Tim? And Merlyn does business with Maduro?
The performance of the stock on the stock exchange. The short position of BlackRock and Capital Fund Management. The competition for lists in view of the assembly. And so on. Facts, numbers, names and insights
Who wants to cripple Tim on the stock market? This is the question (which Consob is also trying to answer) that grips observers and analysts. While the company's shareholder funds are sharpening their weapons in view of the shareholders' meeting for the renewal of the board.
Here are facts, numbers and names, with the latest news.
HOW THE FRENCH AND AMERICAN BLACKROCK MOVE
Last March 20, the investment companies BlackRock Investment Management UK Limited (British division of the US group) and Capital Fund Management (French) exceeded the public threshold of 0.5 percent of Tim's capital: 0.51 and 0 respectively .53 percent. However, as learned from Consob, the short position of the British Qube Research & Technologies is unchanged, at 0.72 percent. The Canadian pension fund Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is also at a standstill, at 0.5 percent, which intends to join the New York fund KKR in controlling NetCo, the new company into which the Tim network will merge.
“BLACKROCK CRAZIES TIM”, MILANO FINANZA HEADLINES
MF-Milano Finanza comments on the Tim affair like this, with the headline: “BlackRock cripples Tim. The stock drops 4% after the shorts of the US giant and Capital Fund. In total, the shares on loan are worth 930 million euros, equal to 19.3% of the capital".
Citing the Financial Times , MF writes that “bearish positions […] have 'at least doubled' after the presentation of Labriola's new industrial plan. It is difficult to understand if all the shares on loan have been shorted. It cannot be ruled out that in view of the meeting some of them may be linked to the creation of vote packages".
THE COLLAPSE OF TIM ON THE STOCK STOCK AND THE RISK OF TAKEOVERS
Tim, meanwhile, continues to decline on the stock market. As reported by Il Sole 24 Ore , at the end of Thursday the stock collapsed to 20.89 cents, to conclude trading at 21.43 cents (a drop of 4.03 percent).
The Confindustria newspaper writes that “the drops on the stock market make Telecom theoretically attackable, in fact 'protected' by the huge debt (33 billion in total financial liabilities) from possible takeovers, of which in fact there is no evidence at the moment. On the other hand, the debt relief, in the plan prepared by the CEO Pietro Labriola and approved by the TIM board, is linked to the closing with KKR for the sale of Netco, expected by the summer".
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE STOCK STOCK TODAY
Very lively trading in the morning on the Telecom Italia stock which yesterday lost 4 percent at the close. Over 173 million shares changed hands on ordinary shares, or already over 1% of the capital. Meanwhile, shares have partially recovered, gaining over 1% (+1.3%) to 0.2172 euros per share.
WHAT THE FINANCIAL TIMES WROTE
Yesterday the panic selling, with the drop of 4% at the end of the session, was triggered once two new net short positions above 0.5% emerged, namely those of Blackrock and Capital Fund Management. Also yesterday, the Financial Times published an article where it highlighted how securities lending, based on S&P data, rose to 19.33% of Tim's capital after the presentation of the new plan. The shares, for a value of around 900 million euros, could be used for short sales, but this, some experts explain, is neither necessarily consequential, given that securities lending could also be used, for example, to vote in assembly in view of the meeting of 23 April.
THE RENEWAL OF TIM'S BOARD
Added to the NetCo deal is the renewal of Tim's board of directors, scheduled for the meeting on April 23rd. Presenting a list of candidates – there is time until March 29 – could be Francesco De Leo, general director of Telecom Italia from 1997 to 1999. Synergies in view of a single list with the Merlyn fund, the newspaper Il wrote yesterday Messenger . But today Il Sole observes that De Leo's project is "opposite to the total stew proposed by the Merlyn fund ". Furthermore, according to rumors collected by Start Magazine , at the moment De Leo has not reached 0.5% and does not have a candidate for election, which is why he would join the Siragusa case, proposed by Merlyn.
At Tim's current stock market prices, not even 17 million euros are enough to reach 0.5 percent of the capital, which allows candidates to be proposed for the new board . The Financial Times recently wrote – based on data from S&P Global – that bearish bets against Tim have reached their highest level in almost twenty years .
THE INTERMONTE REPORT
“The record levels of short positions on the stock – write Giorgio Tavoli to Andrea Randone of Intermonte – signal a high perception of risk which does not seem to find official confirmation when looking at least at the foreseeable evolution of corporate affairs in the short term. A plausible interpretation of the reasons is that a change of management in view of the shareholders' meeting vote on 23 April could increase the chances of a failure to sell the network. However, this scenario seems very unlikely to us, considering the binding nature of the agreement stipulated with KKR. Another possible interpretation is that the market is betting on the failure of the transfer of the network, fearing a delay or lack of green light in the review by the antitrust authorities, and consequently the need for Tim to resort to a capital increase. Even in this case, we do not see solid assumptions, considering the reassurances provided by the management in response to the concerns raised by the OLOs (alternative operators) on the MSA (master service agreement, ed.): the presumed advantage for the ServiceCo of enjoying volume discounts on tariffs paid to NetCo in fact concern unregulated services on which the antitrust authority will hardly be able to intervene with corrective actions". With these premises, should elements of greater reassurance emerge from the ongoing antitrust review and/or on the continuity of the current management in view of the Shareholders' Meeting on 23 April, "we do not exclude that the high volatility of the stock may continue and determine a massive reabsorption of short positions with a sudden 'short squeeze'", we read in the report relaunched by the Radiocor agency.
BUT WHAT IS THE FOUNDER OF MERLYN UP TO IN VENEZUELA?
Finally, an article from the Financial Times spread in Italy which gave an account of "the trip of the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Venezuela to meet President Nicolás Maduro", the trip last February "would have been organized by an interested hedge fund manager to normalize diplomatic relations between London and Caracas".
This is Maarten Petermann, ex-JPMorgan banker and co-founder of Merlyn together with Alessandro Barnaba (in the photo). Johnson's spokesperson assured that in the meeting with Maduro no trade issues were discussed, but only democracy, human rights and Ukraine. Neither Merlyn nor Petermann made any comments. Barnaba, however, declared that he was not aware of Petermann's involvement in the trip to Venezuela.
The newspaper La Verità comments critically : "Whoever attempts to attack Tim does business with Johnson and Maduro."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/blackrock-capital-fund-tim/ on Fri, 22 Mar 2024 13:18:38 +0000.