Members of investment group Telco, Telecom Italia’s largest shareholder, will be free to sell their shares in the company in the coming days, according to Reuters.

Dissolution of the group is set to become effective after its four investors, Spain’s Telefonica and Italian financial companies Generali, Intesa and Mediobanca, decided to break up the vehicle last year.

The move was approved by Argentinean antitrust watchdog CNDC in May, which had a say in the future of Telco because Telefonica and Telecom Italia both have operations in the country.

Telco owns a 22.4 per cent stake in Telecom Italia, and was set up in 2007 to fend off takeover interest in the Italian operator from AT&T and America Movil.

If reports prove correct, Telefonica will soon be free to transfer an 8.3 per cent stake in Telecom Italia to Vivendi, leaving the French conglomerate with a clear path to become the Italian operator’s largest shareholder, in a pre-agreed deal between the two companies.

Vivendi struck the agreement to replace Telco as Telecom Italia’s largest shareholder after it sold off its Brazilian subsidiary GVT to Telefonica earlier this year.