Generali working on new plan amid rising investor tensions (updated)

Caltagirone SpA

29/04/2021 11:43

(Recasts with CEO quotes, sources)
    MILAN, April 29 (Reuters) - Generali  GASI.MI  Chief
Executive Philippe Donnet said on Thursday he had already
started working on a new strategic plan as tensions among
investors in Italy's largest insurer are seen rising in view of
the renewal of the board next year. 
    Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, Generali's second-largest
investor with a 5.6% stake, snubbed the company's AGM on
Thursday in the first public sign that the businessman is
unhappy with the balance of power among shareholders, sources
have said. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ML19B
    Another major shareholder, Leonardo Del Vecchio, who had
also been critical of some of Generali's strategic moves in the
past year, attended the meeting and backed all items voted on, 
a source close to the Italian billionaire said. 
    Donnet's reappointment is in the hands of Generali's board
which for the first time will submit its own slate of candidates
after a change to the insurer's by-laws passed last year.
    In the past Mediobanca - the insurer's top investor with a
12.9% stake - filed a list of nominees to be voted on,
effectively picking the CEO and chairman.
    "As we approach full implementation of our current strategic
plan, we are already working on shaping the next one, and we
have a very solid base on which to build it," Donnet said in the
opening remarks of the meeting, held remotely due to COVID-19
restrictions.
    "With just over six months to go until (the current plan's)
completion, we are confident that we will meet all the goals we
set out," he added without elaborating on his plan.

 (Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Claudia Cristoferi, editing
by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
 ((gianluca.semeraro@tr.com; +39 06 80 307 741;))