Generali investor Caltagirone seeks multinational "with Italian sovereignty" - paper (updated)

Caltagirone Editore SpA

25/03/2022 07:08

(Adds details from interview, background)
    MILAN, March 25 (Reuters) - Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, a
leading investor in Generali  GASI.MI , wants Italy's top
insurer to grow into a big multinational "with Italian
sovereignty", the business tycoon was quoted as saying on
Friday.
    Generali is facing a power struggle over its board
composition at a shareholder vote next month.
    When asked whether change was also needed at the insurer's
top shareholder Mediobanca  MDBI.MI , Caltagirone told daily Il
Sole 24 Ore he was focused only on Generali.
    Caltagirone, together with entrepreneur Leonardo Del
Vecchio, Generali's third biggest investor, are opposing the
reappointment of the insurer's current chief executive Philippe
Donnet as they challenge the influence of Mediobanca.   
    The outgoing board has put forward Donnet for a third term
as CEO and nominated Andrea Sironi, a leading international
expert in governance and risk management who has served as dean
of Milan's Bocconi University, as new chairman. Those nominees
are backed by Mediobanca.
    Caltagirone has submitted his own slate of nominees
proposing Generali's head of Austria and CEE countries, Luciano
Cirina as CEO and Claudio Costamagna, a former Goldman Sachs
banker and former chairman of Italian state investor CDP, as
chairman.
    Cirina and Costamagna plan to hold a news conference later
on Friday.   
    In the interview Caltagirone said that Cirina and
Costagnamagna are complementary and will present a strategy for
the insurer, not yet a detailed business plan.

 (Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi and Stefano Bernabei, writing
by Maria Pia Quaglia, editing by Agnieszka Flak)
 ((agnieszka.flak@thomsonreuters.com; +39 06 8030 7754;))