Telecom Italia (TIM) reported that Italy’s top court had ruled in its favour in a protracted concession fee case, which will confirm the group will receive slightly over 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to end a dispute that has taken more than two decades.
In a statement on Saturday, the former phone monopoly reported what sources had earlier informed Reuters. The concession fee reimbursement should open the long-awaited plan of converting TIM savings shares to ordinary stock and assist the financially desperate company to restart paying dividends, which it suspended in 2022.
People familiar with the matter said that conversion might be discussed already during a board meeting that TIM is supposed to have on December 29.
Therefore, the dispute is a result of the liberalization of Italy’s telecoms industry. TIM had moved to court to reclaim the licence fee it was supposed to pay in 1998, the year after the sector was deregulated.
The government of Italy had been ordered to pay the amount to TIM by a lower court, but the case had been brought to appeal by Rome.
TIM is entitled to receive, in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court, an approximately twofold sum of the licence fee which was paid initially, approximately 500 million euros, together with the revaluation and interests.
However, the Treasury of Italy refused to comment, and the prime minister’s office was not instantly accessible to comment.
The decision is unlikely to have a great impact on Italy to reduce its budget deficit, which is below 3 percent of national output, since the government has already allocated 2.2 billion euros in its 2026 budget in case of national litigation and European Union litigation.
The payout provides CEO Pietro Labriola with money to proceed with a long-standing strategy to eliminate the TIM dual-class share system and eliminate expensive savings shares.
Thus, these shares carry a guarantee of a minimum dividend and constitute approximately 28 percent of the capital of TIM.
