MILANO – General also collects the resignation of Romolo Bardin, to of Delfin, the financial of Leonardo Del Vecchio that del Leone is the third largest shareholder with 6.6%. There are in front of him Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone (8%), who resigned from the board of directors last Thursday, e Mediobanca (12.8%, with voting options up to 17.2%). At this point it is clear that the procedure of the first management list, which the industrial shareholders have not voted and shared (and which begins today with the examination of a long list of candidates for the next board of Generali), will end with a clash between lists in the shareholders’ meeting between Mediobanca and the group led by Philippe Donnet and industrial partners.
Generali, the compass for orienting oneself on the financial battle of the decade
by Vittoria Puledda
Caltagirone and Del Vecchio together with Crt Foundation have signed a consultation pact (which contains 16.6% of the Lion), with the aim of proposing a management and an alternative plan to that of Donnet, and after long searching in vain for a synthesis, they are now determined to win a war to the last vote.
Del Vecchio and Caltagirone have not only invested in Generali but are also the largest shareholders of Mediobanca. The entrepreneur who created from nothing Essilor-Luxottica owns 19% of the Milanese investment bank and the Roman entrepreneur another 3%. If we also count the Generali share indirectly owned via Mediobanca, Caltagirone and Del Vecchio together would have 17.6% of Trieste and 18.6% of the voting rights. However, despite the mistrust on the Donnet management expressed by the two entrepreneurs with the exits from the board, at the moment there will be no concrete repercussions on the top management. Indeed, today’s board of Generali – which had already been on the agenda for some time – will discuss whether to replace Caltagirone and Bardin (given that now the board has dropped from 13 to 11 directors), or to move forward until 29 April, when the whole council will expire and the assembly will have to renew it. And all the committees of Generali must also be rethought in the light of the two recent resignations.
Thus Caltagirone prepares the final assault on Generali and raises the pressure on Consob
by Andrea Greco
There is a famous precedent in which a clash between Mediobanca shareholders and its management caused earthquakes in Trieste. In March 2003, the purchases from Generali of the first shareholders of Piazzetta Cuccia – that is Unicredit and Capitalia – cost the CEO of Mediobanca the job Vincenzo Maranghi, who, being in contrast with his major shareholders, left the proxies to Renato Pagliaro e Alberto Nagel, causing a reshuffle also in the Leo board. And in March 19 years ago, the board of Generali opened its doors to Sergio Balbinot, today member of the management of Allianz and manager who could lead the Caltagirone-Crt-Del Vecchio list for the presidency of Leo.
Times have changed since then. Actions are counted and not weighed – the opposite of what he said Enrico Cuccia – and even if Mediobanca remains the first shareholder of Generali, it will be up to the market to choose whether the team and the plan that the industrial partners are preparing to present is better than the one announced by Generali last December 15, and the new advice that the company is get ready to choose. If it is true that since the insurance group unveiled the 2022-2024 industrial objectives, Generali has recorded the performance of bag worse among rivals, it is also true that the battle over governance is a deterrent for institutional investors, who do not like quarrels between shareholders and reserve the right to evaluate what to do when all the cards are revealed.
The novel of power. It is a battle over Generali, the safe of Italian capitalism
by Francesco Manacorda
The industrial partners, who invested 8 billion between Mediobanca and Generali, have hired important consultants to propose the best possible plan and qualified top management in the eyes of the market. Meanwhile today the board of Generali will screen a shortlist of 25 names, which in mid-February will be reduced to a dozen. By then Caltagirone and Del Vecchio will have refined the plan and hired the managers to implement it, but the two teams will only take the field in mid-March and who knows if the authorities – who have been watching so far – will plant stakes. The Leo board of directors to formalize the continuity list is set for 14 March, by then the entrepreneurs will have the complete team to try to protect their investment and oust Mediobanca from the role of the most influential shareholder.
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