Genovese cashes in 89.7 million after the sale of Prima Assicurazioni
The former enfant prodige, who is finishing serving his sentence for Terrace Sentiment, had founded the unicorn in 2015 and exited in 2022. Now he cashes out
Alberto Genovese has definitively ended relations with Prima Assicurazioni, the insurtech he founded ten years ago. The former enfant prodige of Italian finance - who is finishing serving his prison sentence for the Terrazza Sentimento affair - collected the earn-out linked to the exit from the company dated 2022, an operation that Il Sole 24 Ore is able to anticipate and that was concluded on Friday morning in front of the notary Andrea de Costa of the Marchetti notary firm.
The transaction, worth a total of EUR 89.7 million, is the final step in the process of divesting Prima Assicurazioni that began in November 2020, in the aftermath of Alberto Maria Genovese's arrest after a young woman who took part in the parties that took place at his home in the centre of Milan was reported. According to market sources, Friday's closing refers to prior private agreements between shareholders that provided for an earn-out and a deferred payment for Alberto Genovese, who had no direct or indirect shareholding in Prima Assicurazioni since 2022, as clarified by the company.
Prima Assicurazioni, which together with Facile.it is among the 'unicorn' start-ups founded by Alberto Genovese, has revolutionised the Italian insurance market through an innovative digital model. The company has experienced exponential growth that in the summer of 2018 attracted the largest venture capital round ever in Italy up to that point: €100 million underwritten by Goldman Sachs and Blackstone Group.
The process of the Milanese entrepreneur's exit began in November 2020, when Genovese had stepped down from the operational positions of chairman and CEO following the well-known judicial events, being replaced by number two George Ottathycal Kuruvilla. The sale of shares continued in 2022 with the sale of 25% of the capital for EUR 200 million, a transaction assisted by the law firm Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici.
With the finalisation of the transaction on Friday morning, all relations - direct or indirect - between Alberto Genovese, Prima Assicurazioni, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone and the AXA Group definitively cease.
