Banca Mediolanum to back Mediobanca bid for Banca Generali on June 16
MILAN, June 11 (Reuters) - Italian asset manager Banca Mediolanum (BMED.MI), opens new tab will vote in favour of merchant bank Mediobanca's (MDBI.MI), opens new tab bid for private bank Banca Generali on June 16, it said on Wednesday.
Banca Mediolanum is one of the biggest shareholders in Mediobanca with a 3.5% stake.
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The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
‘Venice is worn out': locals see Jeff Bezos wedding as symbol of city's ills
Marta Sottoriva, a teacher in Venice, has tirelessly campaigned for various causes in her cherished lagoon city, from railing against giant cruise ships to battling soaring rents. Now she is busy preparing banners, handing out flyers and shouting through megaphones in squares as she joins dozens of activists in whipping up resistance to the 'umpteenth gigantic event' she says that risks turning the world heritage site – which has long suffered from the effects of excessive tourism – into a playground for the rich. Sottoriva is referring to the star-studded nuptials between the billionaire Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, and Lauren Sánchez, a former TV journalist. The days-long shindig, expected to begin from 24 June, will be the biggest wedding held in Venice since George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin in 2014. While Venice residents mostly embraced the Clooneys' fairytale big day, the Bezos wedding has been met with much more antipathy. As soon as Venice's millionaire mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, confirmed in March that the couple would be getting married in the city, activists mobilised their 'No space for Bezos' campaign. Posters featuring an image of Bezos's head on a rocket blasting into space – in reference to his Blue Origin space tourism venture – have appeared across the city. The campaigners have also been spreading the word by handing out flyers at various traditional Italian food festivals, known as sagre, and hosting public meetings. Their boldest pre-wedding stunt so far was to erect a banner reading 'No Bezos' on the bell tower of San Giorgio basilica on the Venetian island of the same name, where the couple are rumoured to be exchanging their vows. 'There's a lot of anger in the air because once again the council has enslaved itself to the logic of profit – our city has been sold to the highest bidder,' Sottoriva said. 'Every time an event of this kind happens, the city comes to a standstill, certain areas become inaccessible and even more tourists arrive. This wedding really is the symbol of all that is wrong with Venice.' The details of the nuptials are top secret, with Brugnaro's council feeding the ire by not even confirming the precise dates. The festivities are scheduled for 24-26 June, although some say the wedding itself will not be held until 28 June. Despite the scant information, for months the Italian press has been filled with hearsay about everything from the 200 guests – notably Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey and Ivanka Trump – and their €9,000-a-night hotel rooms, to the contingent booking out the entire water taxi fleet and the many designer dresses the bride will wear during the celebrations. While the city's leaders are fully embracing the merriment and, moreover, the riches they claim the festivities – rumoured to be costing £8.4m – will bring to the city, their political rivals argue that the event will not benefit ordinary Venetians in the slightest. 'This wedding is causing much friction, especially because it is happening at a time when Venice, already invaded by uncontrolled tourism, is completely worn out,' said Giovanni Andrea Martini, a councillor for the opposition. To make up for it, Martini would like Bezos, the world's third-richest person, to help address the affordable housing shortage by donating money towards restoring the more than 1,000 council homes that lie abandoned. Brugnaro has insisted the wedding will not bring any inconvenience to the city and has condemned the anti-Bezos campaigners as 'shameful'. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion Sottoriva says the issue is not necessarily the people getting married per se, although she admits that Bezos's association with Donald Trump and Amazon's record on workers' rights does not bode well. Simone Venturini, Venice's councillor for tourism, said he struggled to grasp why anyone would consider a private event of this kind to be stressful or harmful for the city. 'Venice has already hosted more complex and impactful events,' he said. 'Is it perhaps a fault that Venice is the most beautiful city in the world? 'We should all be proud that the Bezos wedding, an event of international importance, is being held in the waters of our lagoon. Instead, the usual protest professionals have wasted no time. We want to reiterate that Venice is open to everyone.' Marco Gasparinetti, another Venice councillor, said he could understand some of the angst but warned against believing everything the newspapers were writing. 'This story about all the water taxis being booked out is not true,' he said. Whether or not the wedding causes mayhem in the city all depends on where it is held, he added. 'If, as they say, it's on San Giorgio then this would not create any inconvenience – the island has already hosted big events such as the G7 in total security and so it is the perfect location.' Regardless of the exact wedding venue, Sottoriva and her counterparts have no plans to tone down their campaign. 'We're planning a big demonstration on the day of the wedding,' she said. 'Watch this space.'
Reuters
2 days ago
- 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)
Reuters
2 days ago
- Reuters
Breakingviews - Mediobanca great escape has more twists ahead
LONDON, June 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Judging by the Mediobanca ( opens new tab stock price, CEO Alberto Nagel has pulled off an M&A defence coup. His move to snap up a rival wealth group has helped boost the 16-billion-euro Italian bank's shares, taking their price above the level of a hostile offer from Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( opens new tab (MPS). Yet Nagel can't sit easy: key votes and his own investors complicate matters. After MPS made an unsolicited offer for Mediobanca in January, the Milan-based group's boss put together an alternative path with a 6-billion-euro plan to buy Banca Generali ( opens new tab, a wealth manager owned by insurer Assicurazioni Generali ( opens new tab. By moving to create a large money-management business, Nagel has boosted his stock. Mediobanca now trades around 9% above the value of the all-share MPS offer. One interpretation is that investors are excited about the prospect of an enlarged wealth player if the Banca Generali deal goes through. One complicating factor, however, is that some of Nagel's biggest shareholders are not yet endorsing the Banca Generali purchase, which requires 50% approval at a June 16 Mediobanca shareholder meeting. Billionaire Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, who owns 10% of Mediobanca and 5% of MPS, has said that Nagel's deal lacks industrial logic. He has also been buying stock ahead of the meeting, which may partly explain why Mediobanca's shares have risen. Then there's Delfin, which owns nearly 20% of Mediobanca and a tenth of MPS. If that vehicle and Caltagirone oppose the Banca Generali acquisition, Nagel would need a minimum 60% vote turnout and the support of most other shareholders to carry the day. He may feel OK about that risk, since other shareholders have backed the deal. But the next question is whether the insurer Assicurazioni Generali, which owns 50% of the similarly named wealth manager, will agree to sell to Mediobanca and at what price. The slim current 9% premium versus Banca Generali's undisturbed price, and the fact that Nagel is offering to pay in kind through Mediobanca's shares in Generali, make the deal vulnerable to a cash counteroffer from a rival suitor. And Generali cannot be seen to give a sweet deal to Mediobanca, its biggest shareholder. The third challenge is MPS itself. True, CEO Luigi Lovaglio seems to be in a tight spot. Just to get its offer up to the current value of Mediobanca, MPS might need to raise its 15-billion-euro bid by over 1 billion euros. Yet by paying much more for his larger rival, Lovaglio risks chasing his tail: his own share price would probably fall, depressing the value of the bid. Yet Lovaglio has other options. He currently wants two-thirds of investors to accept his soon-to-be-launched tender offer, a level that would allow him to merge the two banks and enjoy all the deal benefits. But he could settle for a lower threshold of 50%, or below. And if Delfin and Caltagirone backed him, he would already be at 30%. Such a move would be sub-optimal. With a lower take-up, Lovaglio would be under pressure to buy the rest, and might not get some or even most of the deal's synergies, which include 300 million euros of cost savings as well as tax benefits. Yet he could still exert control over his target. Mediobanca, meanwhile, would get the disruption of a takeover, and a more complex governance. Nagel's great escape is not yet complete. Follow @Unmack1, opens new tab on X
