No concessions, and the board split in two. A little over a week after the meeting that sanctioned the triumph of the Tortora family and CEO Luigi Lovaglio, the new majority at Monte dei Paschi is continuing its path: the first, very long, post-revolutionary meeting concluded with the appointment of the same Lovaglio in the role of CEO, But also direttore generale. Cesare Bisoni, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, former president of Unicredit, went to presidency of MPS.
Nothing to be done for the representatives of the minorities and Caltagirone group They had requested that the position be awarded to one of Corrado Passera, Paolo Boccardelli, or Carlo Vivaldi, all representatives of the defeated list of the outgoing board of directors (and all mentioned as possible CEOs before Fabrizio Palermo was chosen), in order to send a signal of unity and relaxation. The vote, in fact, concluded with eight votes in favor of Bisoni (all PLT representatives), five against, and two abstentions, likely including Vivaldi and the Assogestioni representative.
Lovaglio – perhaps also due to a very understandable desire for revenge against those who only a few weeks ago kicked him out – has decided to sacrifice unity, but to maintain firm operational control over the bank, focusing on strong governance able to quickly and effectively implement the industrial plan presented shortly before the chaos broke out in Siena, with the exclusion of the CEO from the list of candidates for the new board of directors, his return to the scene through the candidacy with the Tortora family, up to the sensational dismissal for "just cause" of the man who only a few years earlier had saved the bank, to then bring it back to profit and put it in a position to acquire MediobancaAnd it is precisely the merger with Piazzetta Cuccia, which must be voted on by the assembly this summer, that is the cornerstone of the new plan.
Also the vice-presidencies at Plc
There was no division of roles for the other positions either. The vice-presidencies were assigned, again by majority vote, to Flavia Mazzarella e Charles Corradini, both elected on the Plt Holding list, which won 49,9% of the votes at the meeting, compared to the 38,8% obtained by the board of directors' list.
The board then chose the members of the new nominations committee chaired by Patricia Albano. It is Massimo Di Carlo, Paola Leoni Borali, and Flavia MazzarellaThe other four committees will be appointed at the next meeting: remuneration, risk – sustainability, related parties, and IT – digitalization.
Shares in the red following a rumor (denied) by FT about the sale of Generali shares.
At Piazza Affari, in the last session of the week, MPS shares fell by 1,7%. What matters is not the clash that took place in the Rocca Salimbeni board, but the indiscretion launched by Financial Times according to which Lovaglio is evaluating the possibility of sell its 13,2% stake in Generali (-0,45%), held through Mediobanca (-1,6%), worth 7,4 billion euros to help finance the acquisition of Banco Bpm (-0,78%). Among the options under consideration, the English newspaper writes, there would be the sale of the entire package to long-term Italian investors – read Unicredit, already at 8,7% of the Lion, and/or Intesa Sanpaolo. The second option on the table would be to distribute the stake to MPS shareholders as a special dividend.
However, during the morning the bank denied the claim: Rocca Salimbeni announced that no hypothesis regarding the sale of the stake in Generali is being studied and that the bank is entirely focused on the integration and merger process with Mediobanca. Lovaglio himself had publicly reiterated that the stake in the insurance company is a "nice to have” after the victory in the assembly last week.
(Last update: 11.27 am on 24 April).
