Leonardo Del Vecchio does not stop and climbs over 10% of Mediobanca. He communicated this to Consob specifying that he had purchased 0,2% of Mediobanca shares with his Delfin and therefore had reached 10,16 of the capital of Piazzetta Cuccia.
Del Vecchio, the former Martinit who has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs and one of the richest men in Italy, also specifies that he has no partners in the Mediobanca operation or hostile intentions but that he is ready to go higher if the market offers the opportunity.
But there are two novelties in this story that has animated Italian capitalism for months. The first and most important, as highlighted "the Republic” of this morning, is that the major Italian banks financed Del Vecchio for the new purchases of Mediobanca shares and that isit is Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo. If Unicredit is not a surprise considering the excellent relations between Del Vecchio, who is also a historical partner of the bank, and Jean-Pierre Mustier, the CEO of Piazza Gae Aulenti, it was by no means obvious that a loan to Delfin came from Intesa Sanpaolo. In the past, relations between Del Vecchio and Intesa had been chilly but the decision by the head of Luxottica not to take the field in favor of Ubi on the occasion of the takeover bid launched by Carlo Messina was evidently much appreciated by Intesa Sanpaolo and opened new horizons .
What does all this mean? That Del Vecchio sends a very clear message, even if not hostile, to the top management of Mediobanca and, in the end, to the entire Italian system, making it clear that they have very broad shoulders, not only for their immense availability of financial resources but for the evident support that comes from the banking world and in particular from the most important ones.
Now the spotlight is on theMediobanca shareholders' meeting of 28 October which must provide for the renewal of the board for which three lists are in the running: one presented by the outgoing board and headed by CEO Alberto Nagel, one by Assogestioni and the third by the Bluebell activist fund. How will Del Vecchio vote? He will certainly not support Nagel's list but the curiosity is to understand whether or not the list of the outgoing Mediobanca board will be the most voted because, if by chance it were not, the sign of no confidence would be clear, with all the consequences of the case.
