Roberto Colanino, who passed away on Saturday 19 August at the age of 80, will be remembered as a great protagonist of theindustry Italian of the last thirty years. Colaninno's entrepreneurial curriculum is rich in experience, but his story will remain unequivocally linked to the 1999 takeover of Telecom Italia, of which he represented the industrial soul, while the financial games, which are what count in a takeover bid, were entrusted to the unscrupulous clique of Brescian financiers led by the buccaneer Chicco Gnutti. With the surprising support of the old woman Mediobanca and the blessing of the Government D'Alema, to which only the Director of the Treasury Mario Draghi and the economic adviser of Palazzo Chigi Marcellus Messori in addition of course to the CEO of Telecom Franco Bernabe had the courage to express their reasoned dissent, theOpa of the so-called "brave captains" he won on the field but, by reversing his debt on the shoulders of Telecom itself, he ballasted forever the first Italian telephone company which was a jewel but which has never recovered since.
The writer was able to express his opposition to the debt takeover bid in the columns of the Sole 24 Ore, arousing the ire of the old Mediobanca, but once the games were over, Colaninno let me know that he would be pleased to meet me personally and issue me his first interview with Telecom's number one to illustrate his plans. A sign of great loyalty and respect for the press. “You- he told me, receiving me cordially in the Roman office of theOlivetti in Piazza di Spagna – he was a tenacious but correct opponent of the takeover bid and this is why I want to be the first to tell you what I will do at Telecom”. Colaninno gave it his all at the head of the telephone group but his action was jeopardized by the weight of the debt and by the financial origin of the takeover which, at the first opportunity, induced Gnutti and company to obtain a substantial capital gain by selling the shares to Marco Tronchetti Provera, with the support of the Government of Silvio Berlusconi. Although he had made a lot of money from the sale of Telecom shares, Colaninno reluctantly left the telephone company after not having had time to complete his plans. But the entrepreneurial stuff was there and, apart from the parenthesis of Alitalia, was in the revival of the Piaggio that Colaninno put all his skills to good use. We will remember him as an excellent industrialist, full of passion and sensitivity, and as a loyal man. May the earth be light on him.
