Explainer: Billionaire Caltagirone's role in Italy's banking M&A wave

Caltagirone SpA

30/01/2025 13:23

(.)
       MILAN, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Italian billionaire Francesco
Gaetano Caltagirone has emerged as a leading player in a
reshaping of Italy's financial sector triggered by a surge in
M&A activity. 
     
    GENERALI AND MEDIOBANCA BATTLES
    Caltagirone last year expanded his investments in Italy's
financial sector, becoming a key shareholder in bailed-out bank
Monte dei Paschi di Siena  BMPS.MI  (MPS) and fund manager Anima
Holding  ANIM.MI .
    He has long been the third-largest shareholder in Italy's
biggest insurer Generali  GASI.MI  and has increased its stake
in Mediobanca  MDBI.MI  since 2021 to become the No. 2 investor
in the Milanese bank.
    Mediobanca is the largest investor in Generali and it has
clashed with Caltagirone in the past over the insurer's
leadership. In 2022, Caltagirone and the late Ray-Ban
billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio tried in vain to oust Generali
CEO Philippe Donnet.
    Donnet's three-year term expires in May.
    Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's conservative government has
approved corporate governance changes championed by Caltagirone,
and criticised by fund managers, which make it hard for a
company's outgoing board to propose a list of successors.
    Generali has said its board would not propose nominees,
including a CEO candidate, when it retires given the changes in
rules. Donnet has offered to stay on for another term as CEO.
     
    WHAT IS CALTAGIRONE'S ROLE IN ITALIAN BANKING CONSOLIDATION?
    Caltagirone, 81, has emerged as an ally of Italy's
conservative government which has always said it wants to
re-privatise bailed-out MPS to help to create a third large
banking player.
    On Jan. 24, MPS launched a surprise 13.3 billion euro
all-share offer to buy Mediobanca, which has been rejected.
    The Treasury had long favoured combining MPS with Banco BPM
 BAMI.MI , but a hostile buyout offer for BPM by UniCredit
 CRDI.MI  derailed that plan.
    BPM had bought a 5% stake in MPS before UniCredit's swoop,
raising the prospect of an eventual tie-up.
    Caltagirone looked set to play a role in that tie-up thanks
to his network of shareholdings. These are a 5% stake in MPS, a
similar stake in Anima, the fund manager which BPM had bid for,
and 2% of BPM itself. 
    MPS's bid for Mediobanca, which Caltagirone is expected to
back, could now help UniCredit's pursuit of BPM because it
removes a potential line of defence for BPM.
    Caltagirone in December named two representatives to the MPS
board, including his son Alessandro.
        
    WHO IS CALTAGIRONE?
    An Italian entrepreneur with interests in construction, the
cement industry, real estate, publishing and finance,
Caltagirone was born in Rome in 1943 to a family of Sicilian
descent.
    According to Forbes' 2024 wealth ranking, Caltagirone is
Italy's 10th richest person with an estimated wealth of 5.6
billion euros.
    He owns Rome-based daily Il Messaggero, Italy's
eighth-largest newspaper by circulation, which is broadly
supportive of Meloni's government, and several regional
newspapers. 
    Despite his wealth and influence, Caltagirone keeps a
relatively low profile and rarely gives media interviews.
    He started out by reviving his late father's building
business alongside his two brothers and a cousin. He expanded in
the 1980s with the acquisition of cement and infrastructure firm
Vianini Group.
    His Milan-listed cement company Cementir  CEMI.MI  operates
in 18 countries with 3,000 employees worldwide. It is the
largest cement producer in Denmark, the third-largest in Belgium
and among the main international grey cement operators in
Turkey, its website showed. 
    Caltagirone has three children, all involved in his
operations, but no designated successors.


 (Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Valentina Za; editing by
Kirsten Donovan and Jane Merriman)
 ((mailto:gianluca.semeraro@tr.com; +39 06 80 307 741;))