Generali at new stock market highs, market bets on buyback

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor Plus) - Anticipation is rising for Generali's Investor Day scheduled for Tuesday, 30 January, and the stock is touching new highs since April 2021. The insurance group is therefore preparing to take stock of the progress, and the state of progress, of the strategic plan that will be concluded at the end of the year, even if there is ferment among operators, in particular, for possible indications that will be provided on the buyback front. Indeed, the Lion's management has always emphasised that any excess cash at the end of the plan would be returned to shareholders, as was already the case at the end of the previous business plan. On that occasion, a EUR 500 million buyback was launched: this time, too, the excess cash is around half a billion and, according to insiders, it seems unlikely that it can be invested in the coming months in an M& A operation.

This was hinted at at the end of December by CEO Philippe Donnet himself, not least because the size and complexity of the last two acquisitions, the Spanish company Liberty Seguros and Conning (asset management), will in any case require significant efforts in the near future to implement their integration within the Trieste group. Added to this is the fact that the last extraordinary operation in China, where the Lion acquired 100% of China Insurance Company Limited by paying out 99 million, was financed with extra cash without therefore affecting the 'little treasure', on which operators are now betting for a possible, new buyback.