Generali investors Delfin and CRT end their shareholder pact (updated)

Caltagirone SpA

29/03/2022 18:15

(Adds background)
    MILANO, March 29 (Reuters) - Two investors in Generali
 GASI.MI  said on Tuesday they had dissolved a pact they had
struck last year to challenge the Italian insurer's top
shareholder Mediobanca  MDBI.MI  over the renewal of the board.
    Delfin, the holding of the Italian billionaire Leonardo del
Vecchio, and Fondazione CRT said they ended the pact as of March
27 since the purposes for which they signed it have ceased to
exist.
    Europe's third-largest insurer is at the centre of a
shareholder battle that has cast doubt on the reappointment of
CEO Philippe Donnet, whose term ends in April.
    With the backing of Mediobanca, the insurer's board has put
Donnet forward for a third term.
    Italian tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, who is
Generali's second-largest shareholder, has proposed veteran
former Generali executive Luciano Cirina as CEO in a challenge
to Donnet.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2VS0ZA
    Caltagirone, who holds 9.52% in Generali, had also been part
of the pact with Delfin and CRT but quit in January to prevent,
sources said at that time, regulatory scrutiny on whether the
alliance was indeed a consultation pact or represented a more
substantial concert party which could have seen its voting power
curtailed.
    Investment bank Mediobanca is the largest shareholder in
Generali and the row over the board stems from differences
between it and the other large investors over how the insurer is
run.
    The composition of the board will be settled at an investor
vote on April 29. 

 (Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; Writing by Keith Weir; Editing
by Cristina Carlevaro and Andrea Ricci)
 ((gianluca.semeraro@tr.com; +39 06 80 307 741;))