MILAN (Reuters) -The head of FiberCop has stepped down after less than seven months at the helm of the Italian fibre optic grid operator controlled by U.S. fund KKR, the company said.
Reuters had reported earlier on Thursday that FiberCop CEO Luigi Ferraris had resigned.
FiberCop said in a statement that it would start looking for a new chief executive. Meanwhile Chairman Massimo Sarmi and a team of managers would lead the company, it added.
FiberCop was spun-off from former phone monopoly Telecom Italia (TIM) in July, when a KKR-led consortium completed an 18.8 billion euros ($19.6 billion) buyout of the unit, which manages fibre cables stretching over 25 million kilometres across Italy.
As part of the deal, Italy’s Treasury took 16% of the wholesale-only connectivity provider, which is the main piece of Italy’s telecoms infrastructure and employs some 20,000 people.
At the time, the leadership was entrusted to Ferraris, a veteran manager who has held top positions at a number of Italian state-backed companies, including the national railways and utility Enel.
Ferraris, 62, had been drawing up FiberCop’s business plan, which the company is due to present early this year.
FiberCop gave no reason for his departure.
Two people close to the matter told Reuters that Ferraris had been caught in a complex situation in which boardroom disagreements over strategy and operations were coupled by a difficult relation between FiberCop and its main client, Telecom Italia.
Based on FiberCop’s governance rules, the CEO is picked by KKR with a green light by the Treasury.
($1 = 0.9593 euros)
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Valentina Za)
