What are Caltagirone’s true aims in Mediobanca and Generali?
Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone strengthens himself in Mediobanca to have an ever greater impact on Assicurazioni Generali. Facts, numbers, reconstructions and rumors
Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone strengthens in Mediobanca. The Roman entrepreneur, who had risen to 1% of the institute last March, now holds a total of 5.055% of Piazzetta Cuccia. According to Consob communications on equity investments in financial instruments and aggregates – this share is composed of a package of 2.88% in shares and another of 2.175% in options.
The Authority that supervises the Stock Exchange also specifies that the 5.055% stake is held by Caltagirone through the subsidiaries Istituto Finanziario 2012, Capitolium, Mantegna 87 and Calt 2004 srl. 2.175%, on the other hand, refers to “put” option contracts with maturity dates 16 July 2021 for 0.113%, 20 August 2021 for 0.113%, 17 September 2021 for 1.950%.
Caltagirone, Radiocor recalls , is the first private shareholder of Generali with approximately 5.6% and did not participate in the last budget meeting (despite having voted the budget with the board of directors) in parallel with the rise in tension with the management of the Leone and with Mediobanca itself, the first shareholder of the insurance giant based in Trieste.
In the past few weeks, in the meantime, Leonardo Del Vecchio, another strong partner of Leone, had also increased his stake in Mediobanca, bringing it to 19%, a breath away from the 19.99% authorized by the ECB.
But why does Caltagirone rely on the institute in Piazzetta Cuccia led by Alberto Nagel? “A lot of liquidity to invest and one goal: to rebuild the historical position on the banking sector which in the past saw it as a protagonist first in Bnl, then Mps and in UniCredit. These would be the key reasons that would have pushed Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone to join Mediobanca in these hours, of which the entrepreneur now holds just under 3% ”, wrote Il Sole 24 Ore .
The Caltagironian spin, usually edited by the Director of Institutional Affairs Fabio Corsico, can also be found in Repubblica : "Sources close to the Roman entrepreneur do not credit extensive designs and strategies, to explain the latest move: rather, the desire to reconstitute an investment in banks in the tradition of the group. Having established itself between real estate and construction, Caltagirone then diversified into municipal services and finance: and in the last 15 years it has bought and then sold round shares in Bnl, Mps, Unicredit ”.
Almost a home credit investment, it would seem. But why choose to bet precisely on Mediobanca? Simple. The Milanese institute is the first shareholder of Generali with 12.93% of the shares and historically decides the top management of the Lion.
Caltagirone – points out Repubblica – “for months it has been fighting a war that is not too underground against the head of the company Philippe Donnet, for the renewal with the entire board of directors in nine months. The statute of Generali has recently accepted the possibility that the outgoing board of directors draw up its own list of directors, and this was the wish of Mediobanca which already adopts this method appreciated by market investors and typical of public companies. But now Mediobanca and Generali appear more and more "diarchies", not companies with scattered capital. And it is possible that the board list in Trieste will die before it is born ”.
Therefore, beyond the financial bla-bla according to which Caltagirone and Del Vecchio are asking for more managerial and income resourcefulness from Donnet, the Roman builder and publisher is aiming for a turnaround at the top of Generali to help oust Donnet and perhaps identify a new president, maybe the current vice president: Caltagirone.
Fantafinanza? We will see.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/quali-sono-le-vere-mire-di-caltagirone-in-mediobanca-e-generali/ on Wed, 21 Jul 2021 06:21:38 +0000.