Olivetti In $504m Asset Selloff

The sell-off is designed to reduce debt and avoid a fresh call for cash from disgruntled shareholders. Roberto Colaninno, the new chief executive, also confirmed that Olivetti would pull out of the personal computer market.

Losses in PCs have been one of the biggest drains on Olivettis finances. This is our number one priority sale, Colaninno said.

Denying the sell-offs represented a fire sale, he said he was pledged to preserve a slimmed Olivetti concentrating on telecoms. This is not a liquidation strategy, said Colaninno, who had previously been running Sogefi, a motor manufacturing group he founded 16 years ago.

 

Talks are already under way with Mannesmann to sell the German company an eight per cent stake in Omnitel-Sistemi Radiocellulari (SR), the multi- national consortium led by Olivetti. The consortium owns 70 per cent of Omnitel Telecomunicazioni Cellulari (TC), the mobile phone operating company set up in January.

The sale of the PC business would be concluded before the end of the year, he said, but declined to name potential buyers. The buyer of the division, set up as an independent subsidiary in January, would be acquiring Olivettis share of the PC market.

A first-half loss of L15.8 billion was recorded on PC sales of L1,000 billion. Olivetti is producing less than one million units a year