Giuseppe Rotelli is the first shareholder of Rcs Media Group. Yesterday afternoon, 48 hours after the "tear" of Diego Della Valle and the announcement of the new governance of via Solferino, as ordered by Mediobanca and Fiat, the king of Milanese hospitals let it be known that his Pandette has signed a preliminary purchase agreement of 5,2428% held by Partecipazioni Editoriali srl, wholly controlled by Sito Financière which belongs to Silvano Toti. Thanks to this transaction which involved an outlay of 53,7 million euros, for a unit value of 1,4 euros per share, approximately double the quotation of 0,76 reported on Thursday but very far from the 4,5 euros paid formerly from the Roman real estate company, Rotelli will present himself at the shareholders' meeting on 2 May with a total shareholding of more than 16%.
To the stake he already controls, around 11%, must be added the shares of Toto even if the operation cannot be completed before the shareholders' meeting. The representative of Sito, as required by the shareholders' agreement, undertook "to vote according to Pandette's instructions". Rotelli himself yesterday presented a list he led in view of the meeting. The other candidates for the board are: Attilio Guarneri, Avv. Carlo Cerami and Dr. Alberto Mingardi. The list of the board of statutory auditors is made up of: Giuseppe Lombardi and Mario Massari as standing auditors, Vincenzo Mariconda and Nicola Grigoletto as alternate auditors.
What meaning can be attributed to these moves by Rotelli? So far, the lawyer has explained his attention to the publishing group with the intention of "diversifying in publishing, by interest, passion and cultural vocation" underlining that he has no agreement with Diego Della Valle and sits on the Board "in full autonomy so as to be able to exercise my role in the exclusive interest of the company”.
But it is clear that the acceleration in the negotiations with Silvano Toti, who has long been interested in selling the package, is weighed heavily by the latest events in via Solferino. First of all, Rotelli had to speed things up to prevent Della Valle, now free from the constraints of the pact, from stealing that share from him. But the operation could also herald an action pact, formal or informal, between the king of hospitals, a minority director on the board of directors, and Mr. Tod's. In fact, together, the two exceed the strategic threshold of 20 percent, which is very important in the light of the new regulations on governance and the role in the assembly. It remains to be seen now how Della Valle will react to Rotelli's move: apart from the low free float, there is still 5,1% of Benetton outside the agreement.
