In yesterday's meeting of the light pact of Mediobanca, the official vulgate is that of the recent entrance to Leonardo Del Vecchio's Delfin in the capital of the institute of Piazzetta Cuccia with a stake of 6,94%, which made it become immediately the third shareholder of the Milanese bank, there was not even a mention. Possible, very possible, but Del Vecchio was the stone guest of the meeting of the pact, because it cannot be thought that he invested 600 million and make it clear wanting to raise up to 10% of the capital and become the first shareholder only to collect fruitful dividends without mentioning Mediobanca, its strategy, its management and its baroque governance.
And in fact it didn't take long for the first rumors to circulate about Del Vecchio's will to review Mediobanca's statute, where it allows the outgoing board of directors to present a list of candidates at the next shareholders' meeting at the end of October and provides that the candidate for managing director is an internal manager with at least three years of seniority. Questioning these provisions of the Mediobanca statute means only one thing: target the chair of CEO Alberto Nagel, with whom Del Vecchio has had in the past two reasons for dissent, the first on the Ieo-Monzino affair and the second on the structure of Generali.
But if Del Vecchio's goal is clear, achieving it is another matter, why changing the statute of Piazzetta Cuccia implies the search for alliances, starting from Unicredit, which is currently the largest shareholder of Mediobanca with 8,81%, and with other possible travel companions.
Del Vecchio's, which he would like, is not an easy undertaking change the top management of Mediobanca to then get to count more in Generali, where Delfin holds 4,86%, ahead of the spring meeting. How it will end is difficult to say now, but what is certain is that Del Vecchio's moves have opened the door a match in the heart of Italian capitalism which is destined to animate the coming months of Italian finance and which can have unpredictable implications in the balance of power.
