MILAN (Reuters) – An Italian court is expected to rule this week on a request by Telecom Italy (BIT:)’s (TIM) top investor Vivendi (OTC:) to cancel the former telephone monopoly’s decision to sell its landline grid to a consortium led by KKR, a source close to the said thing said.

Vivendi, which holds 24% of TIM, filed a complaint in a Milan court in December 2023 challenging the sale, which is valued at up to 22 billion euros ($22.4 billion).

Under Italian rules, a non-binding deadline for the court to decide the case expires at the beginning of this week.

Sponsored by Italy’s conservative government, which bought 16% of the network as part of the deal, the sale of KKR helped cut debt and strengthen TIM’s finances.

Vivendi has criticized the deal, demanding a higher price tag, and questioning the viability of the remaining business.

Vivendi said the decision must go through a unique shareholder vote, and not just the board.

The sale changes the nature of TIM’s business and dissenting shareholders should have the right to withdraw, by selling their shares back to the company, said Vivendi.

TIM said its board was acting within its rights. The deal ended in July.

After a round of fruitless talks in Rome about the future of TIM, the Paris-listed group took a backseat as an investor and in January 2023 withdrew its representative on the TIM board.

Vivendi no longer considers the holding of TIM as strategic and is open to the potential sale of its stake, which is currently worth 930 million euros.

The file has drawn interest from private equity firms, including CVC, according to people familiar with the matter. Vivendi is looking for a price between 1.0-1.5 billion euros, according to two of the sources. Vivendi declined to comment.

However, any transaction would require support from the Italian government, which has the power to greenlight any sale of more than 3% of TIM.