Mps, board of directors gives green light to list of 30 names with Maione and Lovaglio

The board of directors of Mps, which met in extraordinary session on the evening of 20 February, conditionally approved the long list of 30 names for the renewal of the board, which will then be reduced to 20 names. Among the candidates are chairman Nicola Maione and CEO Luigi Lovaglio, and with them some of the current 15 directors. Among the best-known new names are those of Fabrizio Palermo Corrado Passera and Massimo Caputi.

The long list - which, among other things, includes the names of Carlo Vivaldi, former general manager of Unicredit, and Paolo Boccardelli, now on the board of Banco Bpm - was finalised at the meeting held yesterday to select the names of the candidates. The new names, according to some rumours, would, among other things, have received the approval - obviously informal - also from the ECB, which had asked in particular to choose councillors who are experts in the sector.

A rule to this effect had also been expressly provided for in the criteria previously approved by the board of directors. Also assisting the board in the choice was the Nomination Committee chaired by Domenico Lombardi and head hunter Korn Ferry. The candidates will then be whittled down to the 20 that will be presented at the shareholders' meeting, in order to eventually arrive at the election of 15 board members, as envisaged by the rules set out in recent weeks: an operation that must be carried out by 5 March, given that the regulations envisage that the list presented by the board of directors must be made public 40 days before the shareholders' meeting scheduled for 15 April.

According to the approved regulations, any other lists should arrive 21 days before the meeting. The long list represents a first step towards the renewal of offices while chairman Nicola Maione has concluded the survey among the relevant shareholders, starting with Delfin (17.5%) and the Caltagirone group (10.2%) within a shareholding structure that also includes Blackrock (5%), the Ministry of the Economy (4.8%) and Banco Bpm.

The next board meeting is scheduled for 26 February to approve the plan to be submitted also to the ECB, a plan on which CEO Lovaglio is working and which will be presented the following day to the financial community. It has not yet been decided whether the illustration will be made in Milan or Siena. Moreover, it is not excluded that another meeting may be held to define the final list. In the meantime, the stock market has returned to rewarding the securities of the two banks: the shares, which had rallied immediately after the announcement of the new Mps-Mediobanca set-up and which had suffered a very slight drop yesterday, have risen again today. Mediobanca closed with a rise of 3%, Mps 2.9%.