“The commitment is to bring Pirelli back to the Stock Exchange within four years. The hope is to bring it back to Italy, if the conditions are right”. This was stated by Marco Tronchetti Provera, president and CEO of Pirelli, in a hearing before the Industry, Commerce and Tourism Commission of the Senate. Tronchetti has reconstructed the operation that will lead ChemChina to enter the capital of Pirelli alongside the Camfin shareholders, through the public offer on the market intended to delist the title.
"The Chinese offer is further recognition of the Italian identity - he added - it is the first case in Italy where foreign capital decides to intervene by taking root in the country". Tronchetti underlined that from 2009 to 2014 the presence of foreign institutional investors in the capital of the tire group rose "from 16 to 43%, as recognition of the management's skills", and that subsequently, with the entry of the Long pension fund Term Investment (Rosneft), "the presence of non-Italian capital has risen to 56%".
With the reorganisation, added the entrepreneur, "Pirelli expands from an industrial point of view and has a shareholder behind it who does not interfere with management". The president of the Bicocca group wanted to underline that Chinese entry was not purely of a financial nature ("Chinese investment does not bring money: we don't need money and financial support") but of an industrial nature: "We had to find an ally - he said - The others with whom we had negotiated had overlaps: the Chinese had a need for management by admission of their own president".
Tronchetti Provera will remain at the helm of Pirelli for another five years and will then have the right to designate his own successor: “I'm a gentleman of a certain age – he concluded -. Five years is a very long time and my commitment will then be to find a successor”.
