Telecom Italia: the Board of Directors in Argentina and Brazil confirms the strategic nature of South America

The Telecom Italia Board of Directors, chaired by Giuseppe Recchi, closed today in Rio de Janeiro its plan of works in Argentina and Brazil.

In Buenos Aires the Control and Risk Committee in a joined meeting with the Board of Statutory Auditors took a more in-depth look at the business of Telecom Argentina, its results and investments. More specifically, Telecom Argentina's Chief Executive Officer Elisabetta Ripa confirmed the Group's commitment to the county until the announced sale has been concluded and presented the results for the first six months of the year, booking turnover growth of 19% to 18.5 billion AR$ and EBITDA up 25% to 5.1 billion AR$. The Company's investment plan for this year has been confirmed, worth 5.5 billion AR$ and aimed at strengthening the mobile network and the Company's positioning.

The Strategy Day and formal meeting of the Board of Directors were then held in Rio de Janeiro. During the Strategy Day, a habitual meeting for the Group, both macro-economic matters and aspects linked to the performance of the subsidiary Tim Participações (Tim Brasil) were examined. More specifically, the Board acknowledged the difficult Brazilian economic context, as well as the significant devaluation suffered by the local currency against the euro (-47% on 1 January 2015), whilst Tim Brasil's Chief Executive Officer Rodrigo Abreu confirmed the investments plan of more than 14 billion reais for the three years 2015-2017. The future economic scenarios and prospects of the Group in such a strategic country, where Telecom Italia aims to consolidate its long-term presence, were then analysed.

During the days, the members of the Board of Directors and of the Board of Statutory Auditors, the Chairman Giuseppe Recchi and the Chief Executive Officer Marco Patuano also met with Brazilian authorities.

The formal meeting of the Board of Directors, held today, finally gave mandate to CEO Marco Patuano to explore potential opportunities to enhance the subsidiary Inwit S.p.A..

Rio de Janeiro, 25 September 2015