Generali suspends Donnet's internal rival in CEO race (updated)

Caltagirone SpA

23/03/2022 17:05

(Adds context)
    MILAN, March 23 (Reuters) - Insurer Generali  GASI.MI  said
on Wednesday it had suspended  Luciano Cirina, its head of
Austria and CEE countries, who has been proposed by a leading
shareholder for the role of chief executive in a challenge to
incumbent Philippe Donnet.
    The top Italian insurer is facing a power struggle over its
board composition at a shareholder vote late next month. 
    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 Generali's major shareholder
Mediobanca  MDBI.MI . 
    Italian tycoons Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and Leonardo
Del Vecchio who are, respectively, Generali's second- and
third-largest investors, are opposing Donnet's reappointment as
they challenge the influence of Mediobanca.    
    Caltagirone has submitted his own slate of nominees
proposing Cirina as CEO, a role that Frenchman Donnet has held
since 2016, 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 on
Friday in Milan. 
    Generali told Cirina that all obligations of his contract 
remain in force, including those related to the protection of
confidential company information and compliance with internal
policies regarding relations with the media, financial analysts,
rating agencies, investors and authorities, it said.
    The head of German unit Giovanni Liverani will take over as
interim Austria and Central and Eastern Europe (ACEE) regional
officer with immediate effect.  

 (Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Maria Pia Quaglia
and Keith Weir)
 ((gianluca.semeraro@tr.com; +39 06 80 307 741;))