Pressure mounts on Telstra board to resist Rudd government’s break-up plans

Large institutional shareholders of beleaguered Australian telco Telstra have appealed to the chairman Catherine Livingstone to rally the company's 1.4-million shareholders to petition the government to withdraw its legislation to break up the telecom major, a move they claim will destroy shareholder value.

In their letter, they have reminded the board of its fiduciary and moral duty to fully inform shareholders of the potential destruction of shareholder value resulting from the government's regulatory reforms.

The letter points out that the eight fund managers represent more than 500 million Telstra shares held on behalf of hundreds of thousand of investors.

The letter expresses the institutions' outrage over the draconian impositions on Telstra and says the institutions believe that the board too should share the sentiment.

According to a spokesman for the institutional fund managers, an urgent meeting was required because of their extreme concerns about the proposed changes.

The institutions have however not requested a similar meeting with communications minister Stephen Conroy as they believe that the government has already made it clear that it would go ahead with its plans for Telstra.