Generali’s leadership challengers pledge higher growth, bigger M&A

By Gianluca Semeraro

MILAN (Reuters) -The rebel challengers to Generali’s current management pledged to grow earnings by double figures through cost cuts and free up more cash for M&A deals for Italy’s largest insurer.

Generali is facing a power struggle over its board composition at a shareholder vote next month, with investor Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone putting up his own candidates for the top jobs, including Claudio Costamagna for chairman.

Caltagirone’s camp set out their strategy on Friday in a plan dubbed “Awakening the Lion”, a reference to Generali’s nickname “The Lion of Trieste” which features on its logo.

“When I talked with investment bankers, the most common definition [of Generali] was a sleeping beauty,”, Costamagna told the Financial Times.

“It has huge potential, but still halfway sleepy and we want to awaken it,” he added.

Caltagirone wants to replace Frenchman Philippe Donnet, who has been chief executive since 2016, and install Generali insider Luciano Cirina, who served as the company’s head of Austria and CEE countries until he was suspended this week.

“Awakening the Lion” is based on the observation of Generali’s progressive and inexorable loss of competitiveness compared to its main European competitors,” the plan said.

It aims to boost earnings per share growth to more than 14% over the 2022-2024 period, compared with Generali’s own target of 6-8%.

Another target is to lift the cash available for M&A to 7 billion euros ($7.70 billion). Generali’s plan aimed for 3 billion.

In an initial response on Friday, Generali said that Donnet led the company to its best performance ever last year, and that his latest plan had been received “very positively” by the financial market.

RIVAL SLATES

The outgoing board, backed by leading shareholder Mediobanca, has put forward Donnet for a third term as CEO and nominated Andrea Sironi, a leading international expert in governance and risk management, as new chairman.

Caltagirone and fellow tycoon Leonardo Del Vecchio who are, respectively, Generali’s second- and third-largest investors, are opposing the reappointment of Donnet as they challenge the influence of the insurer’s top shareholder Mediobanca.

In an interview with Italy’s daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Friday, Caltagirone said that Cirina and Costamagna, a former Goldman Sachs banker who also served as chairman of Italian state investor CDP, are complementary personalities, “two sides of the same coin.”

About 35% of Generali’s share capital is in the hands of institutional investors and small savers hold another 23%, meaning their votes are likely to decide the outcome of the vote on April 29.

Generali said its slate of candidates would best serve investors.

“The board has presented a very solid list made of excellent and qualified individuals with international experience, who will work in the interest of all stakeholders and not to the benefit of specific shareholders,” Generali said in a statement.

($1 = 0.9085 euros)

(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi and Stefano Bernabei, writing by Maria Pia Quaglia and Keith Weir, editing by Agnieszka Flak and Jane Merriman)