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ROME, April 22 (Reuters) - Telecom Italia can havea majority stake in broadband firm Metroweb providing it acceptsproper governance conditions and other phone operators asshareholders, a key Metroweb shareholder said on Wednesday.
"If Telecom accepts the entrance of other operators it couldhave a majority stake from the very beginning, even thoughproper governance rules would have to be written," the chairmanof Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) Franco Bassanini said.
State-lender CDP is one of the controlling shareholders ofMetroweb.
This is the first time in discussions over the sale of aMetroweb stake that CDP has opened the door to the possibilityof giving Telecom Italia a majority interest in the company,which has attracted takeover interest from Vodafone.
Metroweb, controlled by CDP and infrastructure fund F2i, isa small firm which rents out fibre optic cables but thegovernment sees it as a building block for a 12 billion europlan to roll out faster networks in Italy.
Talks with Telecom Italia hit a dead end earlier this yeardue to disagreements over the ownership structure of a deal andthe phone company's Chairman Giuseppe Recchi said in Februarythe board had concluded conditions were not yet right for anagreement.
Bassanini said Italian authorities favoured opening up thecapital of Metroweb to all phone operators while keeping astrong financial investor on board but any deal was held back byopposition of Telecom Italia's board.
Telecom Italia, which owns Italy's national telephonenetwork, could take a stake in Metroweb by conferring capital aswell as assets, he said.
Both Telecom Italia and Vodafone have set their sights onMetroweb as they seek to meet growing consumer demand forbandwidth-consuming services.
The British company previously said there could be risks tocompetition if other operators are not allowed to take a stakein Metroweb and have a say over its strategic decisions. (Reporting by Alberto Sisto; writing by Danilo Masoni; editingby Agnieszka Flak and David Clarke)
Vodafone (VOD)