This is why Delfin chose to support Lovaglio

'It is not a victory, but it is a patch on what was becoming a huge problem for the country'. This is how Francesco Milleri, Delfin's number one, is said to have commented with his loyalists on the overwhelming victory in the Mps shareholders' meeting of Pierluigi Tortora's Plt holding list, which nominated former CEO Luigi Lovaglio to lead the bank. Delfin, the first shareholder with 17.5% of Mps, publicly took sides in the meeting by voting for the Lovaglio list, and its vote was decisive in allowing Plt holding to collect almost 50% of the votes of the capital present at the meeting, beating the list of the outgoing board of directors, supported by Siena's other strong shareholder, the entrepreneur Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone (12.5%). A clear position, that of Delfin, which according to some sources would respond to a couple of underlying considerations.

The first, summarised by Milleri in the first hot comments made immediately after the shareholders' meeting count, would be in substance a distancing from the power struggles linked to the control of Generali that, in his opinion, were jeopardising an industrially valid operation such as the aggregation between Mps and Mediobanca. After the takeover of Piazzetta Cuccia, the Sienese bank in fact became central to Generali's balances, owning the 13% of Trieste historically held by Mediobanca.

The second consideration underlying the decision to support Lovaglio's list, analysed under the careful direction of lawyer Sergio Erede, historically close to founder Leonardo Del Vecchio, would respond to strictly financial logic, aimed at ensuring that Delfin's shareholders maximise the value of the assets in its portfolio.

According to authoritative sources, the decision to support Pierluigi Tortora's list in the Siena game would have matured shortly before the eve of the assembly. At first, the orientation of Delfin and in particular of Francesco Milleri would have been closer to abstention. This position was then questioned during the finance company's board meeting, held on Tuesday 14 April, by the five members of the board: chairman Francesco Milleri, CEO Romolo Bardin, Mario Notari, Aloyse May and Giovanni Giallombardo. There, in a collegial manner, the board opted to support Lovaglio. And in this decision, reports a source, a significant role would have been played by the ownership and thus some of the eight heirs who hold 100% of Delfin. On the Mps game, the same source continues, the ownership and the board would have looked primarily at a choice capable of maximising the value of the underlying asset. A principle that applies both with Delfin in the role of long-term financial investor and, should the intentions of the owners change, with the finance company in the guise of a possible seller.