Valentina Za and Gianluca Smeraro

MILAN (Reuters), – Generali’s shareholders will vote in a Friday poll to decide Philippe Donnet’s future as CEO of the Italian insurance company. This comes after a revolting investor proposed a competitor.

Generali’s Chief Executive Officer since 2016, Donnet has been elected for a 3rd term by its Board. Donnet also enjoys the support of Mediobanca (OTC):

He faces resistance from Leonardo Del Vecchio, a billionaire investor, and Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone who have created their own list of nominees for the board.

Luciano Cirina was Caltagirone’s choice for CEO. He ran Generali’s Austria-CEE business up until March, when he quit and since has been fired.

The shareholder meeting on Friday, which will be conducted remotely due to COVID-19 curbs lingering, was well balanced. Both main parties can count on approximately 20% each.

Reiner Kloecker is a portfolio manager for Generali shareholder Union Investment. Union Investment backs Generali’s board of directors.

A person familiar with the situation said that attendance is expected to rise to at least 70% at Generali’s AGM.

Leading proxy advisers ISS & Glass Lewis recommending a Donnet vote, an institutional investor should support the status quo.

Caltagirone’s chances of success have been improved by the news that Generali is being supported by the Benetton family. They own about 4%.

‘DIFFERENT VISIONS’

Donnet has given a vigorous defense of his record, arguing that rebels are trying the call despite holding a fraction of the shares.

He told Reuters that it was about “two very different visions” of Generali’s governance.

Claudio Costamagna and Cirina Costamagna are the rebel candidate for the position of chairman. This is a nod to Generali’s “The Lion from Trieste” nickname.

They want to spend as much as 7 billion euros on M&A, compared with the existing board’s plan for 3 billion euros, and have also targeted annual earnings growth of over 14% with heavy cost-cuts and acquisitions to help outperform the existing plan.

Uncertainty could persist due to Friday’s voting rules. However, the losing side is likely to still get some board seats based on how much they voted.

Caltagirone is a construction and media entrepreneur. He has made himself the first on his own board, so he’ll likely be retaking his seat in January.

Roberto Lottici (fund manager at Banca Ifigest) stated that the Battle around Generali initially had increased the appeal to a stock which was seen traditionally as solid, but perhaps a little lazy.

We took a step back as the battle escalated and dissolved the positions that we had built. “Even if the board wins, it is impossible to rule out internal tensions,” Lottici from Milan said.