Explainer: How billionaire Caltagirone could influence Italy's banking M&A wave

Caltagirone SpA

27/01/2025 08:01

(Repeats Jan. 24 story with no changes to text)
       MILAN, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Italian billionaire Francesco
Gaetano Caltagirone has emerged as a leading player in the
reshaping of Italy's financial sector that is currently under
way. 
     
    BATTLES IN GENERALI AND MEDIOBANCA
    Caltagirone last year expanded his investments in Italy's
financial sector and is now a key shareholder in bailed-out bank
Monte dei Paschi di Siena  BMPS.MI  (MPS) and fund manager Anima
Holding  ANIM.MI .
On Friday MPS launched a surprise 13.3 billion euro all-share
offer to buy merchant bank Mediobanca  MDBI.MI , in which over
the last five years Caltagirone has become the second-biggest
investor.
    He is the third-largest shareholder in Italy's top insurer
Generali  GASI.MI , with a 6.9% stake. Mediobanca is the top
investor in Generali with a 13% stake. 
    Caltagirone has repeatedly complained that Mediobanca exerts
excessive influence on Generali through the board and a
governance system which allows outgoing directors to name their
successors. 
As a long-standing investor and board member at Generali, in
2022 he and late fellow billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio sought
in vain to oust CEO Philippe Donnet.
    Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's conservative government has
approved contested corporate governance changes championed by
Caltagirone, and criticised by fund managers, which tighten the
terms under which a company's outgoing board can file a list of
successors.
    Donnet's term comes up for renewal in the spring and he is
expected to be put forward for another mandate backed by
Mediobanca.    
     
    WHAT IS HIS ROLE IN ITALIAN BANKING CONSOLIDATION?
Caltagirone's holdings potentially pit him against UniCredit
 CRDI.MI  CEO Andrea Orcel who in November launched a buyout
offer for Banco BPM  BAMI.MI , shortly after BPM had launched
its own bid for Anima and bought a 5% stake in MPS.
    The Treasury in Rome has long favoured combining BPM with
MPS, which both partner with Anima, and building a core of
long-term shareholders as it re-privatises the Siena-based bank
it rescued in 2017, sources have said.
    Before UniCredit upended Rome's plans, Caltagirone, with a
5% stake in MPS, a 5.3% Anima holding, and 2% of BPM, looked set
to become a significant shareholder in the combined entity.
    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 on March 2, 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 ($5.9 billion).
    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 Vianini Group, a Milan-listed
cement and infrastructure firm.
    His cement company Cementir  CEMI.MI , listed on the Italian
Stock Exchange, has a presence 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. 
    Caltagirone has three children - Francesco, Alessandro and
Azzurra - all involved in his operations, but no designated
successors.        
     
     ($1 = 0.9529 euros)

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