Telecom Italia executive chairman Franco Bernabe may step down

Telecom Italia executive chairman Franco Bernabe may step down, Reuters reported.

He is likely to resign today. He is leaving the company after failing to get support for increasing investment.

Bernabe has been working with Telecom Italia for the past six years.

Telecom Italia’s core investors Telefonica, Intesa, Generali and Mediobanca never supported some of his strategies.

After the announcement last month that Spain’s Telefonica had struck a deal to gradually take ownership of telecoms, the holding company controlling Telecom Italia via a 22.4 percent stake, Bernabe’s departure seemed increasingly likely.

Franco Bernabe

Telecom Italia has a debt of nearly $39 billion.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Britain’s Vodafone’s chief financial officer Andy Halford has decided to leave the group next year and will be replaced by regional head Nick Read. After almost nine years in the role Halford will leave the firm at the end of March 2014 after the conclusion of Vodafone’s deal with Verizon Communications.

Read, currently chief executive of Vodafone’s Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific region, will be appointed group chief financial officer-designate on Jan. 1, 2014.

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