By Valentina Za
MILAN (Reuters) -Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) on Friday proposed Alessandro Melzi d’Eril, CEO of fund manager Anima Holding, as the new chief of Mediobanca, the Milanese merchant bank it took over last month.
The 16 billion euro ($19 billion) stock-and-cash deal was met with investor scepticism when it was announced in January, due to MPS’s smaller size and the two banks’ different business models.
However, in September it became the largest transaction to go through in a hectic merger wave reshaping Italian finance when MPS secured 86.3% of its target.
The deal completed MPS’s return to the private sector, cutting the Treasury’s stake below 5% from the 68% Italy acquired in 2017 when it bailed out the bank to end a decade-long crisis that had threatened the sector’s stability.
Italy’s billionaire Del Vecchio and Caltagirone families, now holding, respectively, 17.5% and 10.3% of the combined entity, were the driving forces behind the deal.
They are also key shareholders in insurer Generali, alongside Mediobanca.
Caltagirone was also a major investor in Anima, which Banco BPM has acquired via a buyout offer. Anima distributes its mutual funds through BPM and MPS.
Melzi d’Eril, 50, replaces Alberto Nagel, who led Mediobanca for 17 years, and clashed repeatedly with both Delfin, the Del Vecchio’s family investment vehicle, and Caltagirone over the running of Generali.
A descendant of a noble Milanese family that hosted Leonardo da Vinci in one of its villas in the 16th century, Melzi d’Eril will work alongside new Mediobanca Chairman Vittorio Grilli, a former economy minister and long-time JPMorgan banker.
JPMorgan has an established relationship with Delfin and it advised MPS on the Mediobanca deal, together with UBS.
Melzi d’Eril won out over UBS Italy head Riccardo Mulone, sources close to the matter said, citing pay as a factor in the selection. Melzi d’Eril’s background aligns with Mediobanca’s wealth management focus.
Grilli’s investment banking expertise will be a good fit for Mediobanca’s corporate investment banking activities.
The third leg of Mediobanca’s operations, consumer finance, is a retail business already partnered with MPS and matches the expertise of MPS CEO Luigi Lovaglio, a veteran commercial banker who has plans to grow Mediobanca’s Compass consumer loan brand abroad. ($1 = 0.8520 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Jane Merriman)
