More compelling than an appendix novel, the Italian Stock Exchange, theater of a great, hypothetical, war that could be fought over Generali, closes at the top of the European lists: +0,89%. The headlines in the foreground are those of the protagonists of the story and open and close the ranking of the day: Generali +8,21%; Mediobanca, the main shareholder of the Trieste company, +5,58%; Intesa Sanpaolo -4,42%. And with the session closed, the news arrives that the top management of the Generali, Intesa SanPaolo and Unicredit groups have been summoned to Consob. The call - according to what is learned from financial sources - is expected between Wednesday and Thursday and follows the defensive move of the Trieste insurance group which announced the entry into the capital of Intesa Sanpaolo with a securities loan of 3,01%. Unicredit was summoned as a shareholder of Generali.
Outside the perimeter of this new takeover bid or ops game, i.e. a public exchange offer as we are starting to hypothesize, other stocks are experiencing a session of satisfactions. In the foreground Fiat +5,91% (and in the wake of Exor, +4,69%), on the day in which CEO Sergio Marchionne is received by an "honored" Donald Trump in the White House, with colleagues Mark Fields of Ford Motor and Mary Barra of General Motors. The president promises them tax cuts and deregulation against "out of control" environmentalism.
Well-received words from the headlines of the various automakers. Wall Street on the other hand, after a tepid start, is turning positive. Plus sign for almost all the main European markets: Madrid +0,81%; Frankfurt +0,38%; Paris +0,14%. London tied for -0,01%, with the pound down after the final sentence of the Supreme Court according to which the notification of article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, for the start of negotiations with the EU for Brexit, must be authorized by a vote of parliament. British Telecom collapses, after tripling the devaluation due to some accounting irregularities in Italy. The Milan prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the matter.
The euro-dollar ratio has not moved much; Brent rises +0,8% to 55,67 dollars a barrel; downward adjustment for gold -0,48%, 1212,639 dollars an ounce. Spread of the Italian 0,37-year bond against the German Bund: -162.40%, at 2 basis points, yield still around XNUMX%.
And let's go back to Piazza Affari, where the most interesting ideas are found. On the Intesa-Generali match, initially the result of rumors, but rendered credible yesterday by Leone, with the acquisition of the voting rights on 505 million shares of Intesa Sanpaolo, rumors and scenarios are flocking. Certainly there is the calendar of the boards: that of Intesa on Friday and that of Generali tomorrow, with the expected resignation of the general manager Alberto Minali, due to differences with the CEO Philippe Donnet.
For Reuters, however, there are no doubts: Intesa Sanpaolo is studying a public exchange offer on the majority of Generali with the aim of creating a leading champion of asset management. The new colossus would have a capitalization of around 60 billion, in which the contribution of the banking group's assets would account for around two-thirds. Others hypothesize instead that Intesa will march on Mediobanca, the first shareholder of the Lion with 13%. To describe the interweaving of protagonists and supporting actors, the pen of Alessandro Dumas would be needed, especially as there is fear, once again, of an Italy-France clash. In any case, it suffices to remember that Mediobanca's leading shareholder is Unicredit with 8,56%; the second is Vincent Bolloré, the one from the takeover of Mediaset; the third is Banca Mediolanum, owned by Berlusconi.
Today the Unicredit share marks +3,1%; little move Mediaset -0,9%; on the shields Banca Mediolanum +3,34%. Moving on to the other stocks: the Unipol galaxy is up and running +2,96%, with Unipolsai +3,06%. The popular stocks are positive: Banco Bpm +2,48%; Bfor +0,27%. Fly Stm +2,5%; well Cnh +1,21%; Italgas +1,35% and Leonardo +1,19% recovered. New collapse instead of Yoox, -1,57%. Outside the main list, Carige stands out +9,02%. The trend was guided by the prospect that the bank is tightening the deadlines for the presentation of the new business plan to the ECB.
