The FINANCIAL — MILAN, Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA (G.MI) said on February 4 it has rebuffed calls from Franklin Mutual Advisors, a unit of U.S. mutual funds group Franklin Templeton, for changes to its corporate governance.
At 0840 GMT, Generali's stock was up 0.6%, or EUR0.12, at EUR28.52.
"While our governance structure remains somewhat different from other organizations, we believe there is no magic formula for the perfect governance, and looking at our record of consistently outperforming our financial targets we think it provides us with an effective way to manage our organization," Generali Co-Chief Executive Giovanni Perissinotto said in a letter to Franklin made available to Dow Jones Newswires.
Franklin's reported criticism of Generali's governance echoes those of hedge fund Algebis, which contacted Generali in October last year. The insurer could face calls for changes at its upcoming annual shareholder meeting in December.
Franklin, which holds 0.3% of the insurer, wrote a letter to Generali last month criticizing its planned U.S. acquisitions strategy and backed calls for corporate governance changes, the Financial Times newspaper reported on February 4.
"The U.S. market is mature in some areas and much less so in others," a Generali spokesman said on February 4. "So in some fast-growing specialist business areas it could still provide the potential to create value. Clearly management shouldn't ignore any such opportunities if they exist."
It remains to be seen if the two funds will join forces in calling for changes at Generali.
Discussion about this post