Telecom Italia (TIM) said Italy’s highest court had ruled in its favor in a long-running concession fee case, confirming the group is owed just over 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to end a dispute that has dragged on for over two decades.
In a statement on Saturday, the former phone monopoly confirmed what sources had earlier told Reuters.
The reimbursement of the concession fee is expected to unlock a long-awaited plan to convert TIM’s savings shares into ordinary stock and help the cash-starved company resume dividend payments, which it halted in 2022.
The conversion could already be discussed at a board meeting TIM is expected to hold on Dec. 29, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The dispute stems from the liberalization of Italy’s telecoms sector. TIM sued the state to recover the licence fee it was required to pay in 1998, the year after the sector was deregulated.
