Philippe Donnet wins the battle of the takeover bid: Cattolica Assicurazioni belongs to Generali. In the final sprint of the takeover bid launched by the Trieste-based company on Cattolica, which concluded today, many new shareholders accepted the Lion's offer, thus raising Generali's stake in the takeover bid to 66,67% of the Venetian company's capital, a level which exceeds the condition of the minimum threshold and which brings the merger between Generali and Cattolica closer. Considering that Generali already held a stake of more than 20% in the Veneto company, after the takeover bid it thus reaches 84,5% of Cattolica's capital.
With the victory in the takeover bid, Generali completes the most important acquisition of recent times, significantly strengthening its presence on the domestic market. Now Donnet can concentrate on the new business plan 2022-4, which will be presented to the financial community in December. But the battle of battles for Generali will be played in the spring, ahead of renewal of top management foreseen with the budget meeting in April. It is on that occasion that, barring preventive agreements which seem difficult at present, the games will be played in an open field the challenge between Mediobanca, which supports Donnet and his team, and the private partners of the shareholders' agreement led by Del Vecchio and Caltagirone, who instead press for a change of the guard and for a more aggressive strategy of the Lion, whose outlines have never been specified, however.
The keyword will go to ai institutional funds, Italians and foreigners, present in strength in the capital of Generali, which this year has been amply rewarded by the Stock Exchange.
