The flame of confrontation is rekindled in Generali. Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone is no longer a councilor of the insurance company. The Roman builder has resigned from the board with immediate effect. "The reasons have not been disclosed", underlines the Leone company through a note in which it communicates that a new board of directors will be convened "in the next few days" to decide on his replacement.
The General Assembly and Donnet's confirmation
It is the second time, after his exit in mid-January and after more than 12 years as vice president, that Caltagirone has decided to leave. The decision comes a month after theassembly which confirmed Philippe Donnet in the role of managing director of Generali, giving victory (with 55,9% of the votes) to the list presented by the board of directors and supported by Mediobanca and De Agostini. The second list, the one presented by Caltagirone, had stopped at 41,73%. The same assembly had given the green light to the proposal of the outgoing board of directors on the number of board members for the three-year period 2022-23-24, which became 13. The majority list obtained 10 representatives, 3 went to the Caltagirone list.
The clash on internal committees
In the days following the assembly, Caltagirone hadn't spared criticisms of the functioning of governance of Generali arriving on 12 May to refuse to join the internal committees of the Board of Directors, a decision shared by the other two directors on his list, Marina Brogi and Flavio Cattaneo. To date, in fact, there is no minority representative on the committees. At the basis of the refusal was the choice of the new Board of Directors to reject the request to set up a strategic operations and investment committee as not foreseen in the best practices of the sector. A new meeting of the nomination committee should be held on Monday 30 May.
Roberta Neri on pole for replacement
According to rumors and on the basis of the internal regulation, Roberta Neri could replace Caltagirone on the Generali board, former number one of Enav and former financial director of Acea who had been the first of the unelected directors on the Caltagirone list.
The latter, to date, directly or through companies related to him, has in hand 9,95% of Generali and is the group's second shareholder behind Mediobanca, which had arrived at the meeting with 17,4% of the votes thanks to a securities loan but recently closed it, returning to 12,9%.
Generali stock at the bottom of the Ftse Mib
In Piazza Affari, after the surprise move by Caltagirone, the general title it slipped to the bottom of the Ftse Mib and in mid-morning it sold 2,5% of its value below 17 euros per share.
