Mediobanca and Generali, 70 years of intertwining (not only financial): the bond that breaks and the end of an era
From the first actions, purchased in 1956, when leaving the capital for the OPS on Banca Generali: thus the Italian finance in the shade of the Cathedral has changed
It is an ancient story The link between Mediobanca and the General Insurance. A relationship that goes beyond shareholding. The company, who had a figure like among its presidents like Cesare Merzagora (president from 1968 to 1979), who began his work hired by Italian Commercial Bank in 1920. Here, Comit and Generali for Mediobanca have always been two intertwining not only financial. Definitely something more. In the case of the Comit, the story began in 1946 with the foundation of Mediobanca itself as an institute in the medium term participated by the bank that was based in Piazza della Scala, led by Raffaele Mattioli.
And it ended on the eve of the new century: it was 1999 when Intesa, chaired by Giovanni Bazoli, now emeritus president of Intesa Sanpaolo, received in some way the green light from Enrico Cuccia for the purchase of the most international bank that Italy had ever had. A dialogue, the one between the two bankers, which marked a first historical turning point in Italian capitalism. To say where they started, it is worth reading a phrase attributed to Cuccia on the Ambrosian, from whose ashes the new Ambrosian Banco was born, the bank that the professor of Brescia had the role of creating for the rescue: « Saving the Ambrosian is like tightening the coat starting from the wrong button ». It was the eighties.
Now the CEO of Piazzetta Cuccia, Alberto Nagel, has announced the launch of a public exchange offer with Banca Generali and the Institute provides the package of general shares, equal to 13.1%. It is the most relevant participation, the one left after in its history as a bank of participation, Mediobanca has held the securities of all the main companies listed in Italy. A system that was based on a network of union pacts, then gradually loose to give way to the market. Nagel explained the change of strategy, which has already started for some time but that so far had not concerned Trieste: «Since yesterday the general actions have been at the service of this operation for a project that has changed the face of Mediobanca>, he explained. From first strategic participation, then financial, industrial time:
