In fact, in conformity with the mandates of the Shareholders´ Meeting, Telecom Italia undertook, last February, a Public Tender Offer on 742,655,712 saving shares - the maximum amount that Italian legislation allows - at a price of 6.5 euros per share, with a premium of over 25% with respect to the average price recorded during the preceding six months.
In case the participation in the Tender Offer was less than complete, the Shareholders´ Meeting also gave a mandate to buy saving shares on the telematic market at the same price, up to a maximum equal to the difference between 742,655,712 and the number of saving shares tendered.
Upon the conclusion of the Public Tender Offer with the purchase of 1,793,820 shares, Telecom Italia, in applying the mandate relative to purchases for the following 9 months, followed general principles imposing the avoidance of appreciably influencing stock movements. This was done in absence of specific rules applicable to the case in question but having the necessity to divide, using a criterion of reasonableness, the purchase orders to be placed on the market. In particular, Telecom Italia conformed its behavior to Consob recommendations, concerning the practice of stabilizing price movements, that fix maximum amounts of shares to be traded. These modalities permitted at the same time the execution of the mandate for the entire period of nine months foreseen by the Shareholders´ Meeting.
Given that the Shareholders´ Meeting resolution in no way attributed to shareholders the right to sell their saving shares at a price of 6.5 euros outside the Tender Offer, and as market intermediaries engaged to execute trades on behalf of shareholders fully understand, Telecom Italia therefore deems that its shareholders have relied, on the basis of that resolution, exclusively on Telecom Italia´s presence on the telematic market for a period of nine months through purchase orders with a price limit of 6.5 euros, for amounts up to the foreseen maximum number of shares.