confirm or not the ad Lovaglio? By Sunday the candidates for the meeting – Corriere.it

The government list will probably arrive only at the end of the week: Friday, perhaps even Saturday. The deadline for the presentation is Sunday 26 March, twenty-five days before the meeting scheduled for 20 April in Siena. These are crucial days for the near future of Monte dei Paschi, the credit institution that the Italian government saved from bankruptcy by putting on the plate a various amount of public billions of euros and at the same time slipping 64 percent of the bank’s capital into its portfolio. ancient in the world. An absolute majority share which now requires the executive to designate at least twelve of the fifteen future directors of Mps. A complex choice. There are still many variables at play: but they are more linked to political choices, even in a broad sense, than to business.

Unknowns

The unknowns dominate. The most relevant on the future of Luigi Lovaglio, the managing director who arrived in Siena in February 2022 and marked a clear change in the business of the bank, realizing some things that are not simple in the Sienese context, especially in such a short time: an industrial plan that it is stubbornly carrying out and which aims in no uncertain terms at profitability; a 2.5 billion euro capital increase completed practically without recourse to the underwriting syndicate; a redundancy incentive plan that lightened and modernized the old Monte, preparing it to stay on the market from a competitive point of view.

The screening not sure of the reconfirmation. His mandate expires with the approval of the accounts as at 31 December 2022, expected next month. The government has the legitimate right to choose: if it was found on 25 September last, it must now be evaluated in a three-year perspective. Beyond the objective and irrefutable aspects that emerged in the last year and which argue in favor of Lovaglio, it will be an eminently political choice. I won’t be alone. In fact, the government must also think about the new president of Monte dei Paschi. Maria Patrizia Grieco, who was also about to expire like the entire board of directors, made herself unavailable for the renewal of her office. Who will replace it?

Grieco is concluding his second consecutive term with a woman as president of MPS. Will there be a third? If that were not the case, one of the most visible candidates at the beginning of last week is Nicola Maione, current director of Monte Monte, cassation lawyer and previously president of Enav.

In all likelihood, the great majority of the outgoing council, which is an expression of the first Conte government, was May 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, will be renewed. The outcome of the recent administrations in Lombardy and Lazio have given further strength to the majority parties, with a recovery of the League which should also be reflected in the candidates. But the unknowns, as we said, are many.

The government, for example, has just redesigned the Mef, establishing the new Department of the Economy, which will be divided into three departments and which will control the subsidiaries, including Monte.

The other lists

But this is not the only complication: not certain, for example, how many lists will be presented. probable but not certain that the Management Committee, which represents the world of managed savings and professional investments, an organization close to but not superimposable to Assogestioni, will present its own list. Numbers in hand, the Management Committee could count on three directors, which could even go down to two if the foundations and funds that invested in Monte during the capital increase last autumn decide to present unitary candidates.

In any case, the foundations and the Management Committee will not influence the name of the president and the managing director, whose identification is only up to the government: to the minister Giancarlo Giorgetti in the first instance, with the subsequent supervision of the prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

Complicating the choice is the fact that Monte dei Paschi is only one of about 70 companies whose future the government will have to imagine this year. And there will be as many next year: 135 subsidiaries, as many presidents, as many managing directors.

So Monte will be an important choice, also because it will touch a bank that is strongly rooted in an area that has been an electoral fiefdom of the current opposition for decades, but it is not the only game at the moment. All the more so since Monte is being restructured under the control of the European authorities, the remuneration of the directors is important, but reduced compared to other companies, even though it probably requires more work in terms of hourly commitment and depth of analysis.

The last round of the carousel begins, a few days to decide: the certificates of esteem will be weighed in the light of political expediency. It’s always been like this. Unless, really, something has changed.

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