The battle to modernise Italy's corporate governance
A bank fights billionaires over the fate of the country's largest insurance firms
TWENTY YEARS ago Mediobanca was the epicentre of the salotto buono (the “fine drawing room”), a group of old-fashioned firms whose web of cross-connections dominated Italian business. Times have changed. Today the Milanese bank is in the modernising camp in a fight with two super-seniors over the future of 190-year-old Generali, Italy’s biggest insurer. Its outcome could decide whether Italy’s corporate governance is at last thrust into the 21st century.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Ciao, salotto buono”
Finance & economics February 26th 2022
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