Benettons set to axe Atlantia CEO
The Benetton family is set to replace the powerful head of Atlantia with a management board and co-opt a veteran righthand man to help steer the infrastructure group through the fallout from a disastrous collapse. /
The Benetton family is set to replace the powerful head of Atlantia with a management board and co-opt a veteran right-hand man to help steer the infrastructure group through the fallout from a disastrous collapse, say three insiders.
Giovanni Castellucci, who has been Atlantia CEO since 2006, was expected to hand in his resignation at a board meeting on Tuesday, the sources said.
The idea of setting up an executive committee would offer good support,” one of the sources said. The company might also decide to appoint a temporary MD.
Another source said Gianni Mion, a veteran manager long been close to the Benettons, who control Atlantia, and who heads the family s holding company, Edizione, could be appointed to the board and become an executive director.
The collapse in 2018 of a bridge in Genoa killing 43 people brought Atlantia under heavy political pressure with the ruling coalition 5-Star Movement calling for it to be stripped of its motorway concession.
Atlantia s highway unit, which counts Chinese fund Silk Road and Allianz among its investors, runs half of Italy s 6,000km of toll roads and generates a third of Atlantia core profits.
Castellucci, the mastermind of a multibillion merger with Spanish rival Abertis in 2018, was reappointed CEO at Atlantia in May 2018 with a new threeyear mandate.
But news on Friday that Italy s tax police had evidence that safety reports for some viaducts operated by Atlantia s motorway unit had been falsified or information omitted to mislead transport ministry inspectors forced a change of mind.
That was a blow that prompted the family to pull support from Castellucci,” said one of the sources.
Atlantia is expected to hold a board meeting when the CEO is due to make a statement.
The Atlantia share price was up 1.6% in late morning trade on Tuesday, after plunging almost 8% on Monday. /