Much ado about nothing on Caltagirone in Mediobanca?
Generali fixed for Caltagirone via Mediobanca. News, reactions and insights
Caltagirone in Mediobanca: going up to break the bank or much ado about nothing?
This is what analysts, investors and fixers of all stripes have been wondering since this morning in Milan, Turin and Rome after the news from the Turin newspaper La Stampa .
The Roman entrepreneur – reports today the Gedi group newspaper – has risen to 9.9% of the capital of the bank led by the managing director Alberto Nagel. The share is almost double compared to the 5.6% of which the entrepreneur was credited after the purchases that began on February 22, 2021, when he appeared in the Piazzetta Cuccia shareholders' register with just over 1%. A spokesman for the Caltagirone group confirmed the news, however noting that "it is an investment that has been around for about a year".
So we need to contextualize. The rise of the Roman builder and financier therefore dates back to a year ago when the battle over Generali was raging. Since then, everything has changed: as this year's Generali meeting certified, last year's anti-Nagel bloc formed by Caltagirone-Del Vecchio-Benetton-Crt today dissolved and each protagonist voted according to convenience.
So what is relevant today, given the changed context, is not the substance (which dates back to a year ago and which all insiders took for granted) but which has emerged now, points out an observer of Milanese finance: there is probably an anxiety about "reconstruction" which is reflected in a more or less pushed revisionism.
The observer refers to some journalistic reconstructions according to which the turnaround that took place at the top of Crt (Cassa di Risparmio di Torino), with the election of Fabrizio Palenzona in place of Giovanni Quaglia, also had a hand in Caltagirone ; reconstructions that do not adhere to the facts. Rather on other hot dossiers ( such as Generali, Anima and others ) you can certainly see Caltagirone's hand.
However, it should be remembered that Mediobanca is the first shareholder of Generali, a company over which Caltagirone fought a financial battle last year, as mentioned.
The Capital market day is scheduled for 24 May in which the managing director Alberto Nagel will present to the market the bank's new business plan which will accompany the institute until 2026. At the end of October, then, the meeting will be held in which the renewed the board of directors and with it the top management of Mediobanca, just as Donnet will complete the halfway point of his third term.
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EXTRACT FROM THE ARTICLE OF THE NEWSPAPER LA STAMPA ON CALTAGIRONE AND MEDIOBANCA, ACCORDING TO A SUMMARY BY ANSA
La Stampa reconstructs the Caltagirone climb. When in February 2021 it rose to 5.6% – he explains – the rise "was interpreted as a pincer maneuver while the battle for the top management of Generali raged, in which Caltagirone a year ago tried, without success, to overthrow – proposing its own list with an alternative head of the company – the leadership of the managing director Philippe Donnet, reconfirmed within the structure proposed by the outgoing board of directors with the support of Mediobanca, the first shareholder of Leone with 13.1%”. Now, with 9.9%, the Roman entrepreneur – who has also made other investments, such as in Banca Bpm and Anima, using the liquidity of his group – is consolidated as Mediobanca's second shareholder, behind only Delfin , the financial company of the Del Vecchio family, which since the summer of two years ago, is firmly the first shareholder at 19.8% quota authorized by the ECB as a financial shareholder. For the rest, in the Piazzetta Cuccia shareholding structure there is the consultation pact which collects 10.9%, from which the Benettons left in September 2021 with their 2.1% stake. Until now, the size of Caltagirone's investment had remained in the shadows because in the meantime it has not exceeded any threshold that obliges disclosure. Furthermore, as it will be remembered, he did not participate in the last meeting of Mediobanca Caltagirone and therefore did not deposit any shares useful for the count.
La Stampa also provides a reading of the investment made some time ago and therefore not tied to deadlines. “Contrary to what one might believe – writes the newspaper – the Caltagirone share does not currently constitute a declaration of hostility towards Nagel, the banker who has been managing the fortunes of Piazzetta Cuccia for almost 16 years. No signal, for now, not even from Delfin, even though he has criticized the strategy in the past.
Therefore, in view of the October shareholders' meeting, the options remain all open: ranging from a truce which would have the result of maintaining the status quo, even in a changed shareholder context, up to alternative choices such as support from the shareholders for the list of Assogestioni or to another, possibly, group that should be proposed by an activist fund, a category increasingly present in the country as demonstrated by the cases of Enel and Leonardo.
As it turns out, Caltagirone's focus is and remains on Trieste, while on Nagel the attitude would be marked by total secularism, with the regret that the manager has not found, although he could, a shared solution with the Italian shareholders of Trieste. Nagel, rather, will be judged on his next moves, starting with the strategic plan, as well as on his ability to convince shareholders precisely about the future of Generali"
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/tanto-rumore-per-nulla-su-caltagirone-in-mediobanca/ on Wed, 03 May 2023 11:31:29 +0000.