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Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zbyslaw owczarczyk who wrote (11075)	5/4/1999 8:25:00 AM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

LONDON (Reuters) - A group of fund managers claiming to represent about 25 percent of Telecom Italia saving shares confirmed Tuesday newspaper reports they will seek a separate vote of approval on any merger. In a letter sent Monday to Telecom Italia Chief Executive Franco Bernabe and obtained by Reuters, the group -- including Soros Fund Management -- said they would use "all legal means'' to protect shareholders' rights. Both Italia's planned $81 billion merger with Deutsche Telekom and a hostile $65 billion bid from Olivetti were not acceptable to saving share holders, Chris Hohn, of letter signatory Perry Capital told Reuters. "I think we are united in a view that all current proposals are completely unacceptable,'' Hohn said. The letter was signed by Perry, Soros Fund Management, U.S. fund TIAA CREF, Capital Group International and Newman Ragazzi, which together own about 15 percent of Telecom Italia saving shares, a subgroup that earns higher dividends than ordinary shares but has limited voting rights. The fund group said it also had the support of an additional 10 percent of saving shareholders, including Jardine Fleming Asset Management and Franklin Mutual Advisors. Olivetti's bid includes a potential buyout of a percentage of Telecom Italia saving shares, while the deal with Deutsche Telecom accepted by Italia would convert saving shareholders to common stock in the new company at a rate of 5.6 to 1. The group maintains that Italian civil and financial law provides holders of special shares with the right to vote on mergers that affect their rights. "We believe there has been a significant amount of misinformation and omission about the powerful rights of saving shareholders to block any merger of Telecom Italia,'' the letter said. It said that any merger would require the ''approval at a special shareholders meeting of a majority of the saving shareholders present.'' The group also called on Italian regulator Consob to make a disclosure ''clarifying saving shareholder rights.'' Perry Capital's Hohn said that support for the group's position among other shareholders was growing. "We're getting calls in from people we have never heard of who own between $200-$500 million of (saving shares),'' he said. "I imagine that once people do their own legal checking that we will have every single saving shareh