Massimo Doris: 'I am not leaving Banca Mediolanum, no adventure in politics'
The CEO: 'Only flattered and pleased to be considered for such a role, but I have absolutely no intention of playing politics'
The market looks at profit distribution policy, not policy dividends, and Banca Mediolanum, which has reached 15 billion capitalisation and guaranteed shareholders a return of over 68% in the last 12 months, totally absorbs the interest of its CEO Massimo Doris. With the stock markets setting a new all-time high on Wall Street, the bank's headquarters in Basiglio are talking as always about one topic: savings.
On a frosty and rainy day, in the street named after Ennio Doris, where Silvio Berlusconi's Milano 3 opens up to the Lombardy plain, optimism is in the air: a board of directors has just approved a bonus for all employees again this year 'to share', explains Massimo Doris, 'the extraordinary results of 2025' and the outlook remains positive for 2026. In short, Massimo Doris's possible descent into the field for the new Forza Italia, a hypothesis that has received a lot of media attention in recent days, seems at least as excluded as a takeover by the group. The focus is on the results coming in next week, with the average consensus of the business houses (according to the Bloomberg platform) also speaking of profits of over a billion euros for 2025.
Why don't you like the idea of a takeover?
The bank has the capital strength to grow, a Cet 1 of 23.2% after the distribution of an interim extra dividend linked to the sale of the stake in Mediobanca. However, for the time being, I exclude mergers or acquisitions. Firstly, because some of our competitors are overvalued compared to us (Mediolanum has a price/earnings ratio of 14.3 and Fineco 22.3, ed.) and an integration would inevitably be dilutive, and then because in the wealth management and network banking sector, acquisitions are risky: the strong link between private bankers and clients makes combinations complex and exposes non-loyal networks to the actions of competitors and the loss of assets under management. These operations are completely different from the classic mergers between traditional banks, such as Intesa San Paolo with Ubi: between network banks, instead, you acquire private bankers who are not expected to follow you with their clients.
In the summer there was talk of your interest in Banca Generali
This is not on the agenda. The main reason, apart from the difficulty as mentioned of understanding what exactly you are buying when you take over a network of bankers, is linked to the governance of our group: my family controls about 40% of the capital of Banca Mediolanum, and with Fininvest, there is a stable shareholding of 70%. This allows us to make long-term choices in the interests of the company; freedoms that, with a different, diluted shareholding structure, a managing director sometimes cannot afford.
A week before the Olympics, with many groups undergoing reorganisation from Anima to Mediobanca, the favourite sport in the wealth management sector seems to be fishing for the best bankers from competitors
