The company comments on a press article affecting its reputation
Legal action in the interest of all shareholders
Milan, 27 January 2007 - With reference to a press article published today about an involvement of FASTWEB in activities aimed at generating fictitious telephonic traffic, the company states that such allegations are false.
The hypothesis outlined in the article are negatively affecting the company's and its management's reputation. They are also fuelling short-selling activities on FASTWEB's stock to the detriment of all shareholders, as it happens since 23 January when a similar article by the same journalist came out. Therefore, the company has mandated its lawyers to sue Giovanni Pons, author of the above mentioned articles, for libel.
FASTWEB has never been engaged in activities aimed at generating fictitious revenues and margins. All activities carried out by the company, included those related to voice traffic transport, have always been compliant with accounting principles and tax rules. Such services, that represent standard business activities for a telecom operator, have been actually provided by FASTWEB at normal market tariffs and have never generated abnormal profits.
Further, the company highlights that the contribution to EBITDA generated by these services has been approximately equal to 1% over the last few years. Therefore, it is clear that the company's value has never been impacted in any way and that the information provided to the market and to the Stock Exchange authorities has always been transparent.
In the light of the above considerations, FASTWEB confirms its full trust in the judicial authorities and is confident that at the end of the investigation the position of the managers involved will be fully cleared