Telecom Italia chief to resign after Vivendi clash: reports

After weeks of speculation, investors seemed to welcome the statement, with shares in Telecom Italia trading 2.7 percent higher in early business on the Milan stock exchange.

The Italian company said the move came after a request by Italy's financial markets regulator, CONSOB.

"Telecom Italia aounces that negotiations are ongoing with the chief executive officer aimed at the definition of an agreement - to be submitted to the relevant corporate bodies - on the consensual suspension of the offices held by the CEO within the group," it said in a brief statement, whose headline spoke of "advanced negotiations".

The aouncement follows reports in recent weeks of Patuano's possible departure as well as of bad relations between him and chairman Giuseppe Recchi.

Recchi could assume the helm in the interim, Italy's AGI news agency reported.

The AGI news agency also said that Patuano's recent visit to Vivendi's Paris headquarters apparently accelerated his exit from the company with the French firm calling for a "discontinuity" in Telecom Italia's management.

Vivendi owns nearly a quarter of the Italian operator.

Other media have also reported on differences between Patuano and Vivendi.

According to the online version of financial daily Il Sole-24 Ore, Vivendi asked Patuano for spending cuts that went deeper than the €600 million ($675 million) for 2016-2018 that the chief executive already had plaed.

Telecom Italia posted a net loss of €72 million last year after a profit the previous year of €1.35 billion, while sales dropped more than eight percent.

Media reports say that among his possible successors is private rail transporter NTV's Flavio Cattaneo.