Delfin goes above 10% of Generali and rekindles the game of big finance

MILAN. The major maneuvers on Assicurazioni Generali resume, with repercussions also on the near future of its first shareholder, Mediobanca. Delfin, the financial company of the Del Vecchio family, has obtained from Ivass, the independent authority that supervises insurance, the authorization to increase more than 10% of the share capital of the Trieste-based company, with the right now to arrive without the need for further clearance up to 20%. The green light is contained in a resolution approved last Friday in response to an application presented on April 17 by the safe led by Francesco Milleri, Leonardo Del Vecchio’s former right-hand man who became one after his disappearance on June 27 a year ago, the ‘professional heir: the financial company, already at 9.77%, had exceeded the sensitive threshold of 10% not through its own purchases but due to the repurchase of its own shares by Generali. But rather than sell and go back in line, he decided to up the ante.

The news, made known by Repubblica, turns the spotlight back on the most important Italian financial issue, which concerns the leading insurance company in the country which holds a “treasure” made up of assets under management for 631.3 billion euros, which also include 42 billion of Italian government bonds. Anyone who gets their hands on this treasure finds themselves in the center of the country’s most important financial hub. At the moment the major shareholder of the Lion of Trieste (the winged lion of San Marco holding the Gospel is the symbol of the company) is Mediobanca. The investment bank has a 13.10% stake. Package which at the last meeting, in April of a year ago, had served to win – also thanks to a securities loan equal to 4.42% which had temporarily raised it to over 17% – the list proposed by the outgoing board of directors and thus reconfirm the current managing director, Philippe Donnet.

On this occasion we witnessed the first real clash for control of the board of directors of Trieste: on one side the list of the council, on the other another list promoted by Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, at the time second shareholder behind Piazzetta Cuccia, today third with 6.23%. Alongside him Caltagirone has had partners such as Del Vecchio and Benetton.

Now the ascent of Delfin reopens the game on Trieste. But even before that, it risks heavily influencing another one which is played in Milan, after the summer and precisely at the end of October, when the Mediobanca shareholders’ meeting will be held. If Caltagirone has decreased its grip on Trieste, at the same time it has increased it precisely on Piazzetta Cuccia where, as revealed by La Stampa, it has risen to 9.9% of the capital by reinvesting dividends and part of the proceeds from the sale of Trieste shares. And this precisely on the eve of the hot autumn that will decide the new top management of Piazzetta Cuccia, led by Alberto Nagel since 2003 as general manager and since 2007 as managing director. Nagel will be re-nominated as company head. But for the moment no one can rule out an opposing front.

A difficult peace in Mediobanca could pass through a very narrow path concerning the structure of the top management in Trieste. It is no mystery that Caltagirone – which recently in the Senate harshly criticized the system of board lists in which managers, according to them, choose their shareholders and not vice versa – would like to see its role as major shareholder recognized, and so Delfin, through a change of governance. In short, the problem is called Philippe Donnet. But, indeed, it is a narrow street. And that’s not to say it’s enough.

The political phase appears propitious for a nationalist castle on the country’s main financial company. At the same time, the Italian partners increase the pressure. In Trieste as in Mediobanca, where the front of the new shareholders, which sees Delfin (19.8%) and Caltagirone (9.9%) in the front row, includes the Benettons (which could have risen from 2%) and the new entry Danilo Iervolino (who had already voted against Donnet in Trieste) would aim to get close to 40%. We will find out how this share will be used in the coming weeks. In any case, the pincer maneuver between Caltagirone stronger inside Mediobanca and Delfin climbing Trieste suggests that the petrified forest is back in motion.