On the eve of tomorrow's eagerly awaited ECB meeting, the eyes of the market were concentrated in Piazza Affari on two important financial appointments of the day: the Mediobanca board of directors with the explanations by CEO Alberto Nagel on the Ligresti "papello" on the table and the face to face on the board of Gpi (the box on which the galaxy that leads to Pirelli and Prelios depends) between Marco Tronchetti Provera and Mattia Malacalza, with relay from one table to another of Tronchetti Provera (president of Gpi) and vice president of Mediobanca .
The Tronchetti-Malacalza clash is consumed over the differences on how to deal with the maturities of the Camfin debt with the opposition to the convertible bond in Pirelli shares of the Genoese family, which instead would prefer a capital increase. The board of directors of Gpi, on the proposal of the president Marco Tronchetti Provera and with a majority vote, resolved to ask for a pro-veritate opinion on the convertible bond, ie on the obligations pertaining to the same Gpi, pursuant to the shareholders' agreement with the Malacalza family. At the same time, again with a majority vote, he mandated chairman Tronchetti Provera to convene a shareholders' meeting for a 45 million euro rights issue, "functional to the repayment, in whole or in part" of the company's debt due from banks, equal to 41 million euro and maturing in November. Advance move that displaces Malacalza's criticisms of the lack of liquidity. At the end of the board meeting (after an hour and a half), the directors Mattia Malacalza, Marco Caneva and Giampiero Succi were seen leaving the Bicocca headquarters. No comment. Mattia Malacalza, Vittorio's son, confined himself to a "good day, good job". On the stock market, we are trying to understand the next acts of war in a clash that will probably lead to a difference between the two families.
Tronchetti arrived, in Piazzetta Cuccia the other fiery board of directors began in the late afternoon which sees Nagel signing the Ligresti "papello" as protagonist, for the Sicilian entrepreneur an agreement in all respects on his severance pay from the Premafin-Fonsai insurance galaxy, for the Mediobanca manager, it was a simple review of the requests (but which cost him registration among the suspects).
No striking outcome, as perhaps was expected: the board of directors, informed a meager note in the evening of the group, took note of the information of the CEO Alberto Nagel "in relation to the matter referred to in the investigation at the Public Prosecutor's Office Milan. The unanimous council, on the basis of the information at its disposal, awaits the outcome of the investigations with full confidence". He also "expressed satisfaction with the progress of the Unipol/Fondiaria Sai integration project and the related recapitalisation".
Gilberto Benetton, Bruno Ermolli, Piersilvio Berlusconi, Angelo Casò, Tarak Ben Ammar, Alessandro Decio, Vanessa Laberenne, Maurizio Cereda, Fabio Roversi Monaco and Roberto Bertazzoni were seen crossing the door of the investment bank. Lorenzo Pellicioli, CEO of the De Agostini group and director of Generali, has also arrived at Mediobanca. A visit which, according to rumors, would be linked to business reasons and not to reasons related to the board of directors.
But today the first to speak was Cesare Geronzi, former president of Mediobanca (and of Generali) and called into question by the statements reported by Corriere della Sera by Alberto Nagel to prosecutor Luigi Orsi. According to the Corriere, the manager would have indicated to the magistrate that the Sicilian builder had privileged relations with Geronzi, as well as with Bollorè, leader of the French shareholders of Piazzetta Cuccia, and with Alessandro Profumo, until two years ago CEO of Unicredit, the first shareholder of Mediobanca. Thus bypassing the bank's management. “As regards my role, which however has nothing to do with the story in which Dr. Nagel is involved, I want to reiterate that I have never interfered in the operations of the managers who took care of the position of the Ligresti family", Geronzi said who counterattacked: "it is all too evident that the statements of Dr. Nagel, regarding my person, tend, rather than describing the reality of the facts, to find a justification for his actions. In short, a discovery in search of diversions”. And from Mediobanca some sources are quick to let it be known that "The characteristic operations of the institute have always been carried out under the exclusive responsibility of the management in compliance, of course, with the current corporate governance rules".
