After an uncertain start, the spotlights are back on RCS Media Group, suspended due to an excess of just under 0,9 euro with an increase of 12,65 per cent. Far from surprising, given that last Friday, with the Stock Exchange closed, the king of Lombard hospitals Giuseppe Rotelli bought Toto's share, 5,24% a, for 1,4 euros. But above all because Piazza Affari is now sniffing the winds of war among the former "allies".
Hence the pressure of speculation on a stock which, in truth, has a float reduced to a flicker; the shareholders' agreement controls 58,3%, to which must be added 5,5% of Diego Della Valle (who does not intend to sell) and 16,55% of Rotelli. Plus 5,1% of Benetton, the object of desire of the duelists.
But the RCS share held by Edizione Holding is not for sale, they guarantee at Benetton. Indeed, from Ponzano Veneto it is specified that no requests to that effect have arrived, because this choice has been known for some time to all the contenders. Yet the package, equal to 5,1%, takes on an even more significant strategic value after the exit of the agreement by Diego Della Valle, who today has "free hands" to buy other shares to add to his stake, on 5,5, XNUMX%. Or, above all, after Giuseppe Rotelli's blitz which, after having purchased the Toto family package, is today the first shareholder of RCS Mediagroup with 16,55%. Accounts in hand, in short, today a possible alliance of two Della Valle-Rotelli could count on about 22% of the capital. If the Benetton package were added hypothetically to the "odd couple" (entirely hypothetical for now), a share close to 28%, or the takeover bid threshold, would be formed.
For now, this is fictional finance. Also because, to begin with, Rotelli already engaged in the difficult game of "digesting" San Raffaele in his group (a mouthful worth 450 million) has no interest or will to challenge the system that gathers around Mediobanca, director of the choice to proceed with a turnaround of the board by opening the door to the independents.
Furthermore, as Mediobanca itself has made known, Rotelli and Della Valle have suggested different strategies: the first against the sale of Flammarion, in favor of the second who wants to accelerate the sale of properties to concentrate a critical mass of investments in the web. Questions that will be the responsibility of the board of directors but, above all, of the new managing director who, with a singular choice, will be chosen on the basis of the examination of the headhunters only in a few days. In short, it was preferred to start from the head before equipping Rcs with the feet needed to move around. And to choose the direction of course. Even if the characteristics of some independents suggest what the real priority of via Solferino is: to somehow defuse the Recoletos mine, the 1,1 billion euro iceberg on which the Corriere della Sera spacecraft risks crashing.
To avoid the collision, the work i Carlo Bonomi, number one of Investindustrial, will be invaluable and (at the behest of Mediobanca) of Bpm but also the former co-owner with 5% of Recoletos, sold with a large margin to the benefactors of RCS Mediagroup. The price, an anonymous voice from Mediobanca confesses to Il Sole 24 Ore today, seemed expensive even to us who thought it was worth a good 30 percent less. But the desire to do business (and errands) in the years of the Bull and exuberant Spain also infected the austere institute in Piazzetta Cuccia. Today, to get to the bottom of the Spanish enigma, the consultancy of another luxury independent can be very useful: Fulvio Conti, CEO of Enel and of the Spanish Endesa, who actually gives more worries these days due to the debt that it does not collect, given the cut in revenues imposed by the maneuvers of Mariano Rajoy. But in two, you know, he suffers less.
