"Wealth management, 15% return". Generali, Nagel only sells if …

<! – -> A carrying value of 15.88 euros, passed over three months ago, on 10 June. Today, an action by Assicurazioni Generali 2.52 euros fee above the threshold entered in the budget in Piazzetta Cuccia, a price that would allow Mediobanca to collect a substantial capital gain if it decided to market its 13.4% stake in the capital of the Trieste company. And yet, unlike what was envisaged by the last industrial plan and what the second shareholder asked him Leonardo Del Vecchio (which has passed Vincent Bollore and stay behind 8.8% of UniCredit) Alberto Nagel does not sell.

The why the same managing director of the merchant bank during the meeting called to approve the financial statements (closed June 30, 2019) and the policies on performance shares and on remuneration, an appointment attended by Romolo Bardin, managing director of Delfin, the holding company of Mr. Luxottica which in September announced surprisingly that it had entered the capital of Piazzetta Cuccia with one share of 6.94%, percentage today retouched at 7.52.

"Mediobanca had approved a plan with the sale of 3% of Generali which foresaw some capital growth. And what happened next is that we got better. Therefore the need to maintain the financial ratios in good condition has failed”, He explained to a shareholder Nagel questioned about the failure descent into Leo.

"Furthermore, European standards have changed", the banker added, referring to the so-called danish compromise, normally regolamentara now modified that "gives us time until the end of 2024 to deduct the stake in Generali from Mediobanca's assets ”.

Besides strictly accounting issues, there are also financial considerations to be made aboutoptimal allocation of capital and its return, since the investment in the Lion, specified the banker of Piazzetta cuccia, "returns to the group 15%. Which is very profitable ". Words that, out of the teeth, mean that if Nagel will sell, he will do it only if he finds one alternative investment that makes it 15% each year. Which, in this scenario of interest rates and with this economic situation, is not really child's play. Rather.

Moreover for Nagel, who from Delfin received the favorable vote on the budget and the abstention on the responsibility action requested by a small partner on the matter IEO, the resources possibly coming from the total or partial transfer of the quota of the Trieste company they should not be used for dimensional growth in activities core (corporate & investment banking), but in wealth management. Another diversity of views, therefore, with Del Vecchio.

In recent years, the CEO of Mediobanca has in fact continued, "we have made investments in the wealth management, Cib and consumer. If we can to conclude a transaction BUT using capital of Generali, which is not currently scheduled, we will do it"But"there is an activity on which we focus more and it is the wealth management where we entered only 5 years ago".

In short, as you can see last week by presenting the quarterly, Nagel goes straight to the Lion also because "the observation" made by Del Vecchio that Mediobanca is too dependent on the Generali "it made sense 10 years ago, but not today. Since 2005, our group has grown so much in the other components that the Generali component has been diluted and our dependency has come much less than in the past ". Nagel continued, 10 years ago, the participation in the Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi company was worth 25% of Mediobanca's revenues, "today half" of this share, 12%. So, in addition to finding an alternative investment that makes him 15%, the banker will sell only if this new job comes from the sector of wealth management.

The ball is now Del Vecchio who surely says who knows him well, first of all, it rises above the quota held by UniCredit to become the first shareholder.

@andreadeugeni