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Cernobbio. It would be hasty to qualify the Cairo-De Benedetti alliance only as an anti-Republic movement. Carlo De Benedetti’s decision to entrust the production and distribution of his new newspaper, Domani, to the Rcs of Urbano Cairo, also given the advertising investments in La7, adds a new piece to the mosaic of a broader financial and energy network, which is taking shape in recent months. To connect all the dots, we come to the prince of company lawyers, Sergio Erede, 80 years old on the eve of August 15, owner of the largest Italian law firm, with more than 300 professionals and a turnover of hundreds of millions.
Heir’s friendship with the Engineer dates back a long time. The two are almost the same age and have worked together on dozens of historical files, starting with the departure of the Olivetti Engineer and the simultaneous founding of Omnitel, the embryo of today’s Vodafone. Things from thirty years ago, when Erede sat on the most important councils of the De Benedetti group. To the point of being considered, in 2009, one of the key witnesses in the civil case of Lodo Mondadori against Silvio Berlusconi, which ended with the maximum compensation of 750 million that Fininvest paid to Cir.
But if the origins go back in time, it is today when the Heir network becomes current, as it is linked to all the large open financial items. Along with the Engineer, the other historical and great Erede client is Leonardo Del Vecchio, and it is precisely the lawyer born in Florence who followed the rise to Mediobanca and the request for authorization to raise 20% of Piazzetta Cuccia, barely obtained from the ECB. A movement that, due to its undeclared genesis, immediately appeared hostile, directed towards the sancta sanctorum of Italian capitalism.
With Mediobanca, Erede had already crossed swords four years ago. Together with Urbano Cairo, they launch a mission that seemed impossible: the takeover bid for Corriere della Sera. On the other side of the fence is Mediobanca, next to the good room for families and large groups. The OPA is also successful thanks to the support of Intesa Sanpaolo, the first Italian bank to support and finance Cairo and the entire operation. The Erede Cairo tandem is then consolidated, to the point that the lawyer pushes the president of Toro to an even more risky move: questioning the sale of the Corriere headquarters in via Solferino to the US fund Blackstone. A still open lawsuit in which Cairo has obtained from the court the possibility of making a new appraisal, but also risks the request for monstrous damages: 300 million for itself and the same for RCS. More will be known at the end of September. Surely for RCS it is a game that can destabilize the group, controlled by Cairo with more than 60%. Il Corriere still has to deal with this 2020 that threatens to close with a sharp drop in advertising and sales.
Cairo shows the security of an armored command and the strength of a group that has reduced debts from 430 to 100 million. But arguing that the outlook is no longer so certain is not risky, as shown by the possible delinking of the Torino Calcio, which has become an option in recent months. Furthermore, in this context, the strong link between RCS and Intesa (which has some thirty million of these credits) is no longer so. The recent takeover bid launched by the Messina bank on Ubi showed a new geometry: Erede, again he, was on the other side, consultant to Victor Massiah; while Mediobanca joined Messina, of which he was an advisor.
If we then add that the lawsuit against Blackstone was not appreciated by Intesa, which was one of the RCS shareholders who approved the sale of Via Solferino, the circle is closed.
In other words, the new block Intesa-Mediobanca (expanded to Unipol, which is still a shareholder of RCS) and Generali (which contributed to the success of Ubi’s takeover bid by acquiring Cattolica Assicurazioni), now finds its new counterpart in the Erede network. With Del Vecchio representing a position of “domination” already acquired in both Mediobanca and Generali; a Cairo that can manage the battleship Corriere, in addition to the La7, free of financial restrictions because it is protected by the new network; and a De Benedetti that throws a new and aggressive little blade, in the role of the “spoiler”. All united by Sergio Erede. A figure increasingly similar to a kind of Enrico Cuccia, new, revised and corrected for current times.
