(Telecompaper) Italian state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) announced that its board approved a plan to acquire a stake of up to 5 percent in Telecom Italia (TIM) at a current market price of around EUR 600 million with a view to safeguarding the country's interests in a company regarded as strategic and whose leading shareholder is France's Vivendi, with a stake of just under 24 percent. "Such an investment falls under CDP's mission of supporting national strategic infrastructures and aims to help ... the company's development path ... in a crucial sector," said the bank, according to Reuters.