«No war with Prosiebensat, in fact, the exact opposite». The day after the irritated note from the board of the German broadcaster, which invited members to vote against the proposals of Mfe-Mediaset, the financial director of Biscione, Marco Giordani, dismantles the widespread perception of a clash with the management of Prosienbensat in the shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 30th. The group led by Pier Silvio Berlusconi proposed, among other things, the request for independent consultancy to evaluate the convenience of a spin-off of the dating and e-commerce activities as well as a change in the composition of the supervisory board with the inclusion of former EY partner Simone Scettri. The president of the supervisory board, Andreas Wiele, had made harsh statements in which he claimed that Mfe’s proposals were too unbalanced in his favor. Giordani replies: «It seems to me to be a normal dialectic between a board and its shareholders in cases like these. Shall we call it role playing? Let’s define it for what it is: the natural cry for independence of management that claims its autonomy.” Furthermore, the former Mediaset has given a mandate to his consultant to collect the proxies in view of the meeting, but he has no intention of seeking a clash at the last vote in the meeting. «Bringing strategic and rational proposals to the assembly, putting them to the vote: what is more democratic and market friendly than this? – Giordani asks rhetorically – We don’t want to impose anything. Rather, we intend to lend a hand, because it is clear that the status quo, as Pier Silvio Berlusconi has repeatedly repeated, is not good for anyone.”
The Prosiebensat board claims in its statement that the spin-off between the television and secondary activities would increase the debt. «What the Prosieben leaders claim about the debt is unclear and incorrect – explains Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffè, professor of Strategy at Bocconi University to the Giornale – with a split of the assets the debt does not increase, but is divided pro quota. However, I find it correct that a split project is brought to the attention of the shareholders.” Beyond the individual positions, however, “we are talking about a very normal dialectic of governance”. For Carnevale Maffè, however, “the Germans must understand that one cannot take a priori and biased positions like the one expressed in the statement”. For the economist, therefore, the proposal of Mfe, which has specific expertise in the field of television, «is a question of substance and focus of the business, which deserves to be discussed in the assembly.
Trying to prevent people talking about it doesn’t seem like good governance practice to me.”
