"Generali are so important that they are a good thing for everyone, a common good and therefore we need a public company governance” with the possibility of a board list, as happened in the last meeting. This was stated by the CEO of the Leone company, Philippe Donnet, answering questions from the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the banking and financial system of the Chamber of Deputies.
The manager stressed that “Generali must not be owned by a few entrepreneurs”. "Some had a different view - he added - but the shareholders made their choice at the last meeting, they wanted this governance and therefore we are continuing on this path", he added, making a clear reference to what happened in recent weeks, with the surprise decision announced by Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone of resign from the company's board of directors with immediate effect.
The choice of the Roman builder came a month after theassembly which confirmed Philippe Donnet in the role of CEO of Generali, giving victory (with 55,9% of the votes) to the list presented by the Board and supported by Mediobanca and De Agostini. The second list, the one presented by Caltagirone, stopped at 41,73%. In the days following the meeting, Caltagirone had spared no criticism of the functioning of Generali's governance going so far as to refuse, together with the other two directors on his list (Marina Brogi and Flavio Cattaneo) to join the internal committees to protest against the choice of the new Board of Directors not to set up a committee for strategic operations and investments, strongly requested by Caltagirone, but not foreseen in the best practices of the sector.
Donnet: "French aims are fantasies, not the hypothesis of a wedding with Unicredit"
Responding to some observations relating to the issue of defending Generali's Italian identity, Donnet stated: "I am French and I have also been Italian for 10 years, my predecessor called me to manage Generali Italia and for 9 years I have always read this thing about French but there is no interest from any French company, it is a fantasy of journalists, exploited”. The manager also specified that "five years ago the threat to the independence, integrity and also the Italian character of Generali was born in this country, in Italy".
Staying right in Italy, Donnet then excluding any hypothesis of marriage between Generali and Unicredit: "there is no project, it does not enter into our strategy because it makes no sense, we are talking about completely different businesses: insurance is one thing, a bank is another thing".
“It would be a weakening of both companies, and this applies to any bank, not just Unicredit – he added, later specifying that: “Banca Generali is another reality, it doesn't make loans, it's a wealth management company”.
“We want to grow organically in Italy, there is no longer any reason to make other aggregations in the country“, he then said, after commenting the recent acquisition of Cattolica, “on which synergies can be achieved in respect of people, employment and territories. We want to integrate in the right way Catholic, respecting Cattolica's identity, further developing Cattolica's presence in the Verona area. I see only positive impacts in the integration of Cattolica for the next few years”.
With respect to the important acquisition operation, he specified that “what matters is that it is a good deal for all stakeholders: for Generali shareholders, for Cattolica shareholders, for Cattolica agents and employees, for the Verona area. We have an obsession with giving benefits to all stakeholders, because otherwise things don't work”.
Donnet: "Generali has great credibility, historic change"
“Generali's excellent results and the quality of our financial management are recognized by the market, where we have gained great credibility: a historic change”, stated the CEO of Generali, explaining that “Between the end of 2000 and 2016, Generali had underperformed the market and its peers, with a Total Shareholders Return of -52% against -28% for Allianz and +18% for Axa. The opposite has happened since 2016 – he added – with a TSR of +112% for Generali against +71% for Allianz and +49,7% for Axa”. Furthermore, Donnet said, we have “navigated the Covid crisis much better than competitors while we had paid more than the others for the 2008 crisis and it took us 10 years to recover”.
“obji Generali is the leader in insurance in Europe: it is not a weakness but our strength. Furthermore, in recent years we have worked to strengthen our presence and leadership in the Old Continent. We are number one in Italy and in other countries, through recent acquisitions we have become the second player in Portugal and Greece", concluded the manager, underlining that in the last six years the Trieste company has "successfully implemented two strategic plans".
