After more than a week of wrangling and negotiating, Reuters reported yesterday, it appears that Pirelli SpA chairman and CEO – and largest shareholder – Marco Tronchetti Provera has retained his "grip on the Italian tiremaker."
Tronchetti Provera "negotiated the exit from Pirelli’s controlling company of rival stakeholder Malacalza Investimenti," Reuters said. "Under the agreement, the Genoa-based Malacalza family has agreed to swap its shares in two Pirelli interlocked controlling companies in exchange for a direct stake of around 7% in the tiremaker."
The Pirelli chief and Malacalza Investimenti are the two largest investors in Camfin, one of the many holding companies formed by Tronchetti Provera to control Pirelli.
Malacalza Investimenti is a family-owned holding company that bought 12.1% of Camfin in 2009 as an investment. Last year, though, the family and Tronchetti Provera fell into disagreement as to how to deal with Camfin’s reportedly “hefty debt.”
Reuters also reported that Tronchetti Provera said “private equity fund Clessidra and banks UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo were in talks over an investment in Camfin that would lead to changes in the group’s complex control chain.”