There are eleven candidates presented by the outgoing Board of Unicredit for the new board of the bank in Piazza Gae Aulenti who will be elected by the spring meeting and in which the minority lists will also compete for a total of 13 members.
Obviously, the names of the president and former minister stand out in the main list Pier Carlo Padoan and the future CEO, Andrea Orcell, which is preparing to take the helm of the second largest Italian bank with the aim – also through extraordinary operations – of relaunching it and shortening the gap that currently divides it from Intesa Sanpaolo, especially after the merger with Ubi Banca.
In the list for the new Unicredit board there are new names (including obviously that of Orcel), confirmations (including that of Padoan and the outgoing vice president Lambert Andreotti, son of former DC Prime Minister Giulio and long-time manager of the American pharmaceutical industry) and several women.
But the awaited list for the new Unicredit board of directors was not the only fact that moved the Italian finance scene yesterday, even if in perspective the two facts may in a certain sense overlap. The other new fact concerns Mediobanca, which since Leonardo Del Vecchio became the first shareholder with a view to climbing up to 20% of the capital, lives in a kind of limbo waiting to understand where the owner of Luxottica wants to lead it with an eye constantly turned to Generali where Del Vecchio is also there among the main shareholders together with Caltagirone and to the Benettons. And just yesterday Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, the Roman construction entrepreneur who is also the owner of a chain of newspapers including The messenger of Rome, has stirred the waters by purchasing 1,014% of the Piazzetta Cuccia institute for about 80 million euros.
Yesterday's operation cements the Caltagirone-Del Vecchio axis not only in Mediobanca but especially in Generali, where Caltagirone is the second shareholder with 5,65% behind Piazzetta Cuccia (13%) and ahead of Del Vecchio (4,84%) with the clear objective of directing Leone's strategy, both by weighing in on the choice of top which will have to be renewed next year and by creating the conditions for a strengthening of the Italian shareholders in the insurance company in view of future strategic operations.
But for now the focus shifts to Unicredit, where it is no coincidence that Del Vecchio fought to bring Orcel to the CEO chair, who has no direct commercial banking experience but is defined as the Cristiano Ronaldo of M&A. And it is here that the Orcel-Del Vecchio tandem, with the external support of Caltagirone, can reserve surprises both by strengthening the presence of Unicredit in the area and in retail - it is no coincidence that Banco Bpm is at the window - and by moving precisely in the direction of Mediobanca without exclude future acquisitions or integrations. Thus the circle closes: Del Vecchio, in agreement with Orcel, is preparing to count heavily in Unicredit and even more in Generali, where Mediobanca would no longer be the main helmsman and where instead he can weigh the axis with Caltagirone in a decisive way and possibly with Unicredit in the case of weddings in Milan. We will certainly see some good ones. Italian finance can prepare for fireworks.
