Boardroom ructions at Italy’s largest insurer
NO NEED for a knife. The threat of forcible ejection and the offer of a huge €16.6m ($24m) exit package was enough to convince Cesare Geronzi to resign on April 6th as the chairman of Assicurazioni Generali, Italy’s largest insurer. He was replaced two days later by the more emollient figure of Gabriele Galateri, Generali’s deputy chairman from 2003 until last year.
Mr Geronzi, a longtime mover in Italian corporate and political circles, antagonised much of the board in his one-year reign, thanks largely to outspoken ideas on the firm’s future strategy. But his spell as chairman did not seem to throw the company off balance. Generali recorded a leap of 30% in net profits to €1.7 billion in 2010. Giovanni Perissinotto, Generali’s chief executive, puts its strong performance in the life sector in particular down to active investment and proprietary distribution networks in Italy, France and Germany. ...
