Cernobbio. It would be hasty to brand the Cairo-De Benedetti alliance only as an anti-Republic move. Carlo De Benedetti’s decision to entrust the production and distribution of his new newspaper, Domani, to the Rcs of Urbano Cairo, also in the face of advertising investments on La7, adds a new piece to the mosaic of a wider financial and power network, which is taking shape in recent months. To connect all the dots we come to the prince of business lawyers, Sergio Erede, 80 years old on the eve of August 15th, owner of the largest Italian law firm, with over 300 professionals and a turnover of hundreds of millions.
Heir’s friendship with the Engineer goes back a long way. The two are almost the same age and have worked together on dozens of historical dossiers, starting with the departure of the Engineer from Olivetti and the simultaneous foundation of Omnitel, the embryo of the current Vodafone. Things thirty years ago, when Erede sat in the most important boards of the De Benedetti group. To the point of being considered, in 2009, one of the key witnesses in the civil case on the Lodo Mondadori against Silvio Berlusconi, which ended with the maxi compensation of 750 million that Fininvest paid to Cir.
But if the origins go back in time, it is today that the Heir network becomes topical, being linked to all the large open financial items. Together with the Engineer, Erede’s other historical and great client is Leonardo Del Vecchio, and it is precisely the lawyer born in Florence who followed the climb to Mediobanca and the request for authorization to climb to 20% of Piazzetta Cuccia, just obtained from the ECB. A move that, due to its undeclared genesis, immediately appeared hostile, directed towards the sancta sanctorum of Italian capitalism.
With Mediobanca, Erede had already crossed blades four years ago. Together with Urbano Cairo they launch a mission that seemed impossible: the takeover bid on Corriere della Sera. On the other side of the fence is Mediobanca, together with the good living room of families and large groups. The takeover bid is successful also 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: calling into question the sale of the Corriere headquarters in via Solferino to the US Blackstone fund. A lawsuit still open in which Cairo has obtained from the court the possibility of making a new appraisal, but it also risks the request for monstrous damages: 300 million for itself and the same for RCS. More will be known by the end of September. For sure, for RCS it is a game that can destabilize the group, controlled by Cairo with over 60%. Il Corriere then still has to deal with this 2020 which threatens to close with a sharp drop in advertising and sales.
Cairo shows the safety of an armored control and the solidity of a group that has reduced its debts from 430 to 100 million. But arguing that the prospects are no longer so certain is not risky, as demonstrated by the possible disengagement from Torino Calcio, which has become an option for a few months. Furthermore, in this context, the strong link between RCS and Intesa (which boasts about thirty million of these credits) is no longer such. 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 it was 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 Intesa-Mediobanca block (extended to Unipol which is still a shareholder of RCS) and Generali (which contributed to the success of the Ubi takeover bid by taking over Cattolica Assicurazioni), now finds its new counterpart in the Erede network. With Del Vecchio representing a position of “domination” by now acquired both in Mediobanca and in Generali; a Cairo that can manage the Corriere battleship, in addition to La7, free from any financial constraints because it is protected by the new network; and a De Benedetti who launches a small aggressive new sheet, in the role of the “spoiler”. All held together by Sergio Erede. A figure more and more similar to a sort of new Enrico Cuccia, revisited and corrected by current times.
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