MILAN (Reuters) -Italian billionaire Leonardo del Vecchio and banking foundation Fondazione CRT, shareholders in insurer Generali, are considering dismantling a consultation pact after fellow investor Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone quit in January, two sources close to the matter said on Tuesday.
“The agreement doesn’t make sense anymore, its been overcome by events,” one of the sources said.
Tycoons Caltagirone and Del Vecchio, respectively Generali’s second- and third-largest investors, joined forces in September to challenge the insurer’s single biggest shareholder Mediobanca over the appointment of Generali’s next chief executive.
Smaller investor Fondazione CRT sided with them, and before Caltagirone left, they owned an aggregate 16.3% of the insurer.
The decision to dissolve the pact does not intend to break up relations between the three investors nor their objective to replace Generali’s management, one of the sources said.
The foundation is holding a meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the situation after Generali asked industry supervisor IVASS whether the combined stake required prior authorisation.
Caltagirone and a representative for Del Vecchio last month stepped down from Generali’s board in a move that freed them from disclosure obligations on further stakebuilding, barring the crossing of certain thresholds.
At the end of January, Caltagirone left the pact and said that he would present his own slate of candidates for Generali’s board, which comes up for renewal in April, adding a joint list of board nominees had never been among the pact’s commitments.
Two sources close to the matter had said Caltagirone’s move did not stem from disagreements with fellow pact members but was intended to prevent regulators from saying the pact was not a mere consultation accord.
Generali shareholders will be called to appoint a new board on April 29.
(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi and Andrea Mandala, writing by Giulia Segreti, editing by Cristina Carlevaro and Bernadette Baum)
