MILAN (Reuters) - Asati, the association of small shareholders of Telecom Italia (Tim), will present its own list of candidates for the BoD at the April 23 meeting of the tlc group.

The goal is to have on the new board a representative of the association's 8,000 member shareholders, who together hold about 1 percent of the capital. The list will consist of eight names and will not include a candidate for CEO, said Chairman Franco Lombardi.

Last month, Tim's shares tumbled more than 20 percent in a single day after the presentation of the group's financial outlook post network divestment, putting pressure on CEO Pietro Labriola, who is aiming for a second term.

Around 3 p.m. today, the stock rose 4.2 percent.

However, Asati said it agrees with the broad outlines of the plan and believes the divestment of the fixed access network and part of the 'backhaul' network is necessary to reduce debt.

"By leveraging its network infrastructure, Tim also has an important opportunity for growth by offering 'enabling services,' which improve the quality of application services, enable the offering of new services, allow Very High Capacity networks to be monetized, and in many cases achieve a reduction in the cost of the network," the note said.

Another small Tim shareholder, Merlyn Partners, also announced its own slate of advisers last week, calling for the group to conclude the sale of the network "as soon as possible"-after initially criticizing the project-and also commit to the sale of the Brazilian subsidiary and retail.

Openly opposed to the sale of the network to Kkr is Tim's largest shareholder Vivendi, which has questioned the sustainability of the remaining assets and challenged the deal in court.

With its 24 percent, it could stand in the way of Labriola's reappointment.

(Elvira Pollina, writing Claudia Cristoferi, editing Sabina Suzzi, Andrea Mandalà)