Generali, Caltagirone and the controversial activism of the Crt foundation
What CRT (shareholder of Assicurazioni Generali) does and how is discussed in Turin on the Caltagironian activism of the leaders of the Piedmontese foundation
What happens in the home of CRT, the Savings Bank of Turin, on Generali?
In recent days, the press has given prominence – and it would not be the first time – to the scuffles at Crt (Cassa di Risparmio di Torino), shareholder of Assicurazioni Generali.
In particular, La Stampa and MF gave account of a recommendation approved last Wednesday with a Bulgarian majority by Commission 1, the body that deals with assets and finances, in which the Board of Directors of the Crt Foundation is urged to opt for the abstention in the Generali assembly rather than converging on the Caltagirone list (led by surprise by a top manager of the Lion, Luciano Cirinà , who until a few hours ago collaborated with the number one of the insurance giant, Philippe Donnet, who would like to oust).
A few days earlier, the CRT board itself had been the scene of heated moments.
On Friday last week, an urgently convened council had endorsed the candidacy of the vice president of CRT, notary Caterina Bima , for the Caltagirone list. Just twenty-four hours later, however, the same board of directors reneged on Bima's candidacy, with a resolution of revocation.
What justifies this bizarre pirouette and even more the embarrassment caused to Bima, completely unusual for a city accustomed to saving shapes and faces at any cost?
Some sources report that the reversal was caused by the opinions of the Turin foundation's lawyers, also in light of the checks that Consob is carrying out in recent days.
More in detail, the fear is to violate with the designation of Bima the prohibition for persons who perform administrative, management or control functions at a foundation from holding administration, management or control functions at its subsidiaries or banking or insurance subsidiaries.
All the more so as the incompatibility also applies to the exercise of offices in competing companies.
On the latter aspect, the Weigmann studio that assists CRT is lapidary.
The Unicredit group , owned by Crt, distributes insurance policies throughout the Italian market through its branches, and Assicurazioni Generali, in turn owned by Crt, distributes policies with a network of agents throughout the Italian market: therefore they compete on the market for the distribution of insurance products.
Other sources, on the other hand, offer an entirely political and strong-colored reading of the story.
Unbeknownst to him, Bima would become the pawn of a sort of 'exchange', in which the inclusion of the Turin notary in the Caltagirone list was the condition to immediately collect the support of the CRT for the Caltagirone list.
But, on this last choice, more than one member of the board of directors took time, and therefore the candidacy of Bima also vanished.
This week began with the presentation of the Caltagirone list, in which there is no trace of Bima.
In the meantime, Commission 1 has strongly urged the board of directors of Cassa di Risparmio di Torino to choose 'neutrality' rather than voting in Caltagirone.
It remains to be seen whether the president of CRT, Gianni Quaglia, will go straight and overwhelm the resistance of those who, in the foundation, are nostalgic for a more institutional and less maneuverable CRT.
“Quaglia manages CRT as an activist fund, but CRT is neither Elliot nor Amber”, is the joke heard in Turin in the circles that mumble the most about the foundation's financial activism.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/generali-caltagirone-e-il-discusso-attivismo-della-fondazione-crt/ on Fri, 18 Mar 2022 11:51:44 +0000.