Top TIM investor challenges CEO as pay policy rejected

MILAN (Reuters) -Vivendi, the top investor in Telecom Italia (TIM) , on Thursday stepped up pressure on CEO Pietro Labriola after shareholders in the phone group rejected its remuneration policy.

A person close to the French media group said the vote over TIM's pay policy was a clear sign of opposition to Labriola's strategy, adding a change of step as well as a different governance set-up were needed.

Vivendi has been on the warpath over Labriola's plans to sell TIM's main asset, its landline grid, to strive to turn around the group by reducing its large debt and focusing on its services business.

TIM received on Wednesday improved offers for the grid which disappointed the market, sending shares sharply lower, and fell well short of what Vivendi is seeking for the asset.

In a sign of mounting tensions, Vivendi earlier this month had criticised the criteria TIM adopted to award bonus payments to Labriola.

On Thursday shareholders, led by Vivendi with a near 24% stake, failed to approve TIM's remuneration policy for 2023-2025.

They also rejected pay packages awarded in 2022, on which their vote however was non-binding.

After relinquishing its seats on TIM's board, Vivendi has been piling pressure on directors saying they should only asses offers that value the grid fairly and put any decision to a qualified shareholder vote.

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Writing by Valentina Za; Editing by Keith Weir, Alexandra Hudson)