Latest news with #AssicurazioniGenerali
Bloomberg
15-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Mediobanca Postpones Investor Meeting on Banca Generali Bid
Mediobanca's board agreed to postpone an ordinary general meeting called to approve its takeover offer for Banca Generali to Sept. 25 from June 16, according to a statement Sunday. Certain investors who are shareholders of both Mediobanca and Assicurazioni Generali have highlighted a need to understand Generali's assessment and stance on Mediobanca's proposal before they feel able to vote on it, not least because Assicurazioni Generali acceptance is essential for the deal to be completed, the company said.
Reuters
13-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Mediobanca's Nagel bets on final makeover act to fend off Italian rival
MILAN, June 13 (Reuters) - Mediobanca ( opens new tab shareholders will vote on Monday on the final act of an overhaul its CEO Alberto Nagel began three decades ago to turn a bank born to fund Italy Inc's postwar reconstruction, into its No. 2 wealth manager. To stave off a hostile bid from state-backed Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) ( opens new tab, Nagel in April proposed buying private bank Banca Generali ( opens new tab. His plan, part of a game of chess to reshape Italian finance, crucially involves severing Mediobanca's historic ties with the target's owner, insurance giant Assicurazioni Generali ( opens new tab. It is a bold bet to protect Mediobanca's independence and Nagel's own legacy at a pivotal time for Italian banking. The 60-year-old keen off-piste skier and tennis fan, joined Mediobanca in 1991, dedicating his entire career to the bank. He began his quest to transform Mediobanca at the end of that decade when he managed to convince co-founder Enrico Cuccia that Mediobanca should start managing the money its clients pocketed from transactions Nagel handled as head of investment banking. Made CEO in 2008, Nagel set out to steer the bank away from its role as the lynchpin of Italian capitalism, sitting at the heart of an intricate web of corporate shareholdings. "That role was necessary when Italy's capital market was small and closed," Nagel told Reuters last week. "Once outside capitals started flowing in, and the big foreign banks arrived, I knew Mediobanca had to transform," he said, speaking at the bank's headquarters, a 16th century aristocratic mansion nested behind Milan's La Scala opera theatre. Now, Nagel is marketing the proposed 6.3 billion euro Banca Generali deal using a 13% stake in its parent Generali as an alternative to the MPS offer, betting it could render Mediobanca too big for its smaller rival to swallow. He also hopes it will allow him to win over two investors who have long been a thorn in his side and are now backing MPS' takeover attempt - Delfin, the holding company of late Ray-Ban owner Leonardo Del Vecchio, and construction tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone. Both, who are also major Generali shareholders, have repeatedly clashed with Nagel and accused him of relying excessively on income from the insurer while holding back its growth, which Nagel rejects. In the latest twist of the years-long confrontation, Delfin and Caltagirone have recently become the top shareholders in Mediobanca's suitor MPS. Nagel, who used to drive a Fiat Panda, rarely gives interviews and generally keeps a low profile, has come to embody the understated power and influence of the institution whose identity he is now fighting to preserve. Though one of his first moves as CEO was to secure retail funding for a bank that had no depositors, and he has steadily grown the lender's consumer finance business, Nagel sees a culture clash in a tie-up with a commercial bank like MPS. Still, he broke with Mediobanca's past in 2013, outlining plans to sell all of its corporate holdings except for the Generali stake, and to expand the investment banking business abroad, eventually buying up boutiques such as London-based Arma Partners. The wealth management business, meanwhile, progressed only slowly, taking off in earnest only in 2015-2016 when Mediobanca bought out its partner in a joint venture and made a series of acquisitions. Nagel hunted for years for a wealth management target, but the sector commanded big valuations and returns from the Generali stake he would dispose of to fund a deal were hard to match. Banca Generali would boost wealth management to account for 45% of revenues, from a quarter at present, and 50% of profits from one fifth now. "We'll achieve what would have otherwise taken us eight to 10 years," Nagel said when presenting the deal. Monday's vote will show whether his bank can ward off MPS and make that leap, but he can already count on some investors. "Mediobanca swapping the (Assicurazioni) Generali shares for Banca Generali is such a tectonic shift," said Cole Smead, CEO of Arizona-based Smead Capital Management, who welcomed the plan as an overdue modernisation of Mediobanca's capital structure. "They're cutting the umbilical cord, for us that's a good thing," Smead said. ($1 = 0.8753 euros)
Bloomberg
02-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Generali Offers a Perfect Venue to Fight for Europe's Financial Future
It's no exaggeration to say that what happens at Assicurazioni Generali SpA in the next few months will determine the financial and political map of Italy for years to come – and exert a strong pull on the strategic direction of Europe as a whole. The country's biggest insurer is the key domino in a matrix of banking deals: Which way it falls will affect most of the other proposed alliances. Generali's hometown of Trieste in the northeast corner of Italy is the perfect setting for a decision around which a constellation of corporate deals will turn. This glorious and strange city's patchwork past echoes the fluid history of European nations – it's been Austrian, Napoleonic and Balkan, as well as Italian. The next step for the insurer could leave it chained to a fractious past, or open up a bigger, more European future.
Zawya
28-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
UniCredit doubles stake in Greek bank Alpha in latest M&A twist
MILAN - UniCredit has done a deal to double its stake to close to 20% in Greece's Alpha Bank , the Italian bank said on Wednesday, as it diverted its attention away from M&A stumbling blocks elsewhere. Last week UniCredit challenged in court government conditions hampering a bid for domestic peer Banco BPM , while its ambitions to tie up with Germany's Commerzbank are also on hold due to government hostility. UniCredit said it has used derivatives bought through leading investment banks to buy 9.7% of Alpha at a discount to the latest closing price. It already owned 9.6% of Alpha. "This step strengthens our successful partnership with Alpha", CEO Andrea Orcel said in a statement. The bank will now seek ECB approval for the deal which would allow it to cross the 10% threshold and reach a potential holding of up to 29.9%. UniCredit also used derivatives to acquire 28% of Commerzbank. It bought a stake in Assicurazioni Generali too, but Orcel on Tuesday ruled out a takeover offer for Italy's biggest insurer. It first invested in Alpha in late 2023, becoming its main shareholder by buying the 9% stake held by Greece's state-controlled bank bailout fund HFSF for 293.5 million euros ($332 million). The investment was part of a deal that saw UniCredit acquire most of Alpha's Romanian business and strike a commercial partnership to sell its own asset management products to the 3.5 million clients of Greece's fourth-largest bank. The increased holding will allow the bank to book the investment in a way that generates an additional net profit of around 180 million euros per year, UniCredit said, adding it would return that money to shareholders. The impact on UniCredit's core capital will be of around 40 basis points it said. ($1 = 0.8835 euros)
Reuters
27-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
UniCredit CEO rules out move on Generali
MILAN, May 27 (Reuters) - UniCredit Chief Executive Andrea Orcel ruled out on Tuesday the bank could make a play for Assicurazioni Generali ( opens new tab, Italy's biggest insurer in which it has recently acquired 6.7%. The stake, which UniCredit ( opens new tab has called a financial investment, the same description it has used for its 28% Commerzbank ( opens new tab holding, has raised speculation about Generali's future as the insurer cuts ties with its main shareholder. Generali's main investor, Mediobanca ( opens new tab, plans to dispose of its 13% stake under a scheme to fend off suitor Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( opens new tab. Mediobanca would use its Generali shares as payment to buy the insurer's private banking unit Banca Generali ( opens new tab. On Monday, Intesa CEO Carlo Messina said he would ring Orcel to dissuade him from a Generali acquisition were UniCredit to make a move for the insurer, opening up a third M&A front. UniCredit has launched a buyout offer for smaller rival Banco BPM ( opens new tab. Speaking at the same FABI union conference a day after Messina, Orcel was asked if there were any risks the Intesa CEO would have to make that phone call. "Absolutely not," Orcel said. Orcel also played down any potential interest for Banca Generali, saying such networks of financial advisers traded at valuation multiples much higher than banks and a combination with a branch franchise would offer little scope for cost savings. Orcel said distribution was a key element of wealth management and it made sense for a bank to hold onto any distribution capacity, but he added that Generali may have different strategies in parting ways with Banca Generali. Asked if UniCredit, as an investor in Generali, supported the Banca Generali deal, Orcel said the decision would be taken by the insurer's board and not be put to its shareholders. However, some other Generali shareholders have raised doubts about whether the decision can be left solely to the board, without a shareholder vote.
