Green light to the prospectus of Generali for the takeover bid on Cattolica Assicurazioni which will take off on 4 October and which will allow the Lion of Trieste to conclude the conquest of the Venetian company, but watch out for the nominations for the renewal of the board of Generali itself, over which the war has been raging for weeks war between Mediobanca on one side and Del Vecchio and Caltagirone on the other on the fate of CEO Philippe Donnet. It is precisely on this second front that the Market Authority keeps the spotlights on in view of the crucial steps for the formation of the new Generali board of directors.
Tomorrow, in fact, will meet the Generali nomination committee which must examine the candidacies for the next board, which will be elected at the assembly next spring, but on which the board could already pronounce itself on Monday, approving the list proposed by the outgoing board, which contemplates the confirmation of the CEO Philippe Donnet, or putting everything back at stake. The second option is the one proposed by the major private shareholders, Caltagirone and Del Vecchio, whose shareholders' agreement closely follows Mediobanca and is determined to change the leadership of the company.
The next few hours are decisive for Generali e a compromise between the two fronts appears far away, But the Consob he is vigilant because he wants to understand whether the list of candidates for the next board actually and independently arises within the board or is the result of negotiations between the two opposing fronts. If this second hypothesis were verified, it is evident that it would materialize the risk in concert between the two main equity fronts (that of Mediobanca, which holds 12,93% of the Leone capital, and that collected in the Caltagirone-Del Vecchio shareholders' agreement, which is able to put together 12,53%) which would trigger the obligation of a very expensive takeover bid on Generali that all major protagonists would like to avoid. But the battle of Trieste is long and twists are always around the corner.
