Explainer: How billionaire Caltagirone is influencing Italy’s banking M&A wave
MILAN (Reuters) – Italian billionaire Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone has become one of the leading actors in the reshaping of Italy’s financial sector, which is currently under way.
Wars in general and Mediobanka
Caltagirone expanded its investments in the Italian financial sector last year and has now become a key shareholder in bailed-out bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) and fund manager Anima Holding.
On Friday, MPS launched a stunning €13.3 billion all-share offer to buy merchant bank Mediobanca, in which Caltagirone has become the second-largest investor in the past five years.
It is the third largest shareholder in Italy’s top insurer Generali, with a 6.9 percent stake. Mediobanca is the largest investor in General with a 13% stake.
Caltagirone has repeatedly complained that Mediobanca has excessive influence over the general through the board and management system to name their successors.
As a long-time investor and board member at Generali, in 2022 he and the late billionaire Leonardo del Vecchio tried in vain to oust CEO Philippe Donnet.
Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s conservative government has approved corporate governance changes embattled by Caltagirone and criticized by fund managers, strengthening the terms under which a company’s outgoing board provides a list of successors.
Donet’s term is up for renewal in the spring and he is expected to be offered another mandate backed by Mediobanca.
What is the role of Italian bank consolidation?
Caltagirone’s holding could pair him with UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcell, who launched a takeover offer for Banco BPM in November, shortly after BPM made its own bid for Anima and bought a 5% stake in MPS.
The Rome-based treasury has been re-privatizing the Sinai-based bank it rescued in 2017 by merging BPM with MPS, both partnering with Anima and building long-term shareholders, sources said.
Before UniCredit advanced Rome’s plans, Caltagirone, with 5% of MPS, 5.3% of Anima holds and 2% of BPM, looked set to become a significant shareholder in the combined entity.
Caltagirone named two representatives to the MPS board in December, 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 the Forbes 2024 wealth ranking, Caltagirone is Italy’s 10th richest person with an estimated fortune of 5.6 billion euros ($5.9 billion).