When last year the Pesenti family decided to sell Italcementi to the German giant Heidelberg Cement, in which it remained as second shareholder, Carlo Pesenti, the CEO of Italmobiliare (the family's safe from Bergamo) said that part of the liquidity deriving from that operation as well as that obtained from the sale of Finter Bank to Vontobel would have been invested in Italy. That is what will probably happen soon.
Italmobiliare is in effect negotiating exclusively with the widow of the late Claudio Sposito for the purchase of 100% of Clessidra Sgr and has said it is willing to participate in the financing of the third fund of the Italian private equity jewel. According to rumors, Italmobiliare would be ready to pay Clessidra around 20 million euros and, if all goes smoothly, the deal should be concluded within the month of May.
However, private equity is not Carlo Pesenti's only thought. In recent days, his family name was evoked as a possible protagonist of a consortium of entrepreneurs willing to launch a counter-takeover bid on RCS, under the direction of Mediobanca and as an alternative to Urbano Cairo's Ops, but a discreet denial. The financial commitment for a high-risk operation such as the counter-takeover bid on RCS and above all the restructuring and relaunch of the Corriere della Sera and Gazzetta dello Sport publishers is too strong. But this doesn't mean that Pesenti doesn't look carefully and curiously at the publishing world.
It is no coincidence that in recent days Carlo Pesenti has joined the new board of directors of Sole 24 Ore, ratified on Thursday by the shareholders' meeting of the Confindustria publishing house which appointed Giorgio Squinzi to the presidency.
