All the opinions of the proxy advisors in view of the Enel shareholders’ meeting
Glass Lewis recommends voting for the Assogestioni list for Enel instead of that of the Mef, and Mazzucchelli as president instead of Scaroni. The judgment of another proxy advisor, Iss, is similar. All the details
Glass Lewis, one of the main international proxy advisors – this is the name of the consultancy firms that advise investment funds on how to vote in the meetings where they are shareholders -, spoke in favor of the Assogestioni list for Enel.
THE ASSEMBLY OF 10 MAY
Enel's shareholders' meeting will be held on May 10, during which the new board of directors will be voted on: the government, through the Ministry of the Economy (shareholder with 23.6 percent), has proposed the names of Flavio Cattaneo (formerly Italo and Terna) as new CEO and Paolo Scaroni (formerly Enel and Eni) as new chairman, and four directors.
Assogestioni – the Italian association of asset management companies, which represents about 1.8 percent of Enel's capital – presented its own list, but without indicating candidates for the positions of chairman and chief executive officer: they include Mario Corsi, Dario Frigerio and Alessandra Stabilini.
GLASS LEWIS PUSHES MAZZUCCHELLI, NOT SCARONI, TO THE PRESIDENCY OF ENEL
Glass Lewis, therefore, invites the shareholders of the electricity company to support the Assogestioni list. For the office of president, however, he suggests voting not for the candidate for the ministry, Scaroni, but for the one on the list of the Covalis Capital fund (he has a 1 percent share). Namely the banker Marco Mazzucchelli .
According to the proxy advisor , compared to Scaroni, Mazzucchelli could "better safeguard independent supervision at board level and act as a greater counterweight to the presence of the CEO".
GLASS LEWIS DOES NOT FOLLOW COVALIS IN GOVERNMENT CRITICISM
However, Glass Lewis rejected Covalis's criticisms of the government, accused of opaqueness in the appointment process, and thinks that Assogestioni's list is better suited overall to represent the interests of the market.
– Read also: Enel, all the twists and turns of the Cayman Covalis fund on Meloni, Giorgetti, Scaroni and Cattaneo
THE JUDGMENT OF ISS
Another important proxy advisor , Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), instead advised Enel shareholders to vote for Cattaneo and Scaroni. He gave a favorable opinion to the Assogestioni list, while he expressed doubts about the directors on the government list, considered inexperienced: namely Johanna Arbib, Olga Cuccurullo, Fiammetta Salmoni and Alessandro Zehentner. On Scaroni, however, the judgment is positive.
WHAT DOES MAZZUCCHELLI THINK OF ENEL?
Interviewed by Corriere della Sera , Mazzucchelli declared that “Enel is an energy champion but I think it has unexpressed potential. I go so far as to say it could be worth double. Hence the decision to propose our list [that of Covalis Capital, ed ] with the idea of contributing to a governance that can enhance the strength of the group”. "We are the spokesperson for an unease", he added, "because the international investors who own 60% of the capital have never really been listened to".
The banker explained to the newspaper that he would like Enel to adopt "a strategy in continuity [with what was done under Francesco Starace, ed ], but with a fine tuning to recover the discount at which Enel deals with respect to the Spanish Iberdrola". “Perhaps in recent years he has wanted to do too many things: he is in Latin America, in Eastern Europe. It should focus especially on where it has vertical integration, such as Italy and Spain, geographically strategic countries for the energy transition and also recipients of the REPowerEU programme”.
To reduce its debt – around 60 billion euros at the end of 2022 – Enel has already started a process of selling its assets in Latin America (Argentina, Peru) and Eastern Europe (Romania) to concentrate on a few key markets, among including Italy, the United States and Brazil.
At ISS Mazzucchelli reproached for not having "focused enough on really important issues such as ESG [the principles that measure the environmental, social and governance sustainability of an investment, editor's note ] and above all governance".
THE OPINION ON LEONARDO
Both ISS and Glass Lewis have suggested to the shareholders of Leonardo – another state-owned company: the Ministry of Economy is its largest shareholder, with 30.2 percent – to vote in favor of the GreenWood Investors list in the meeting to be held on 8 and 9 May next.
– Read also: What will happen to Leonardo's assembly
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/enel-suggerimenti-proxy-advisor/ on Fri, 28 Apr 2023 13:53:11 +0000.