Vittorio Malacalza resigns from Pirelli board

Vittorio Malacalza resigned from Pirelli & C. SpA on 10 May, stepping down from the position of deputy chairman and member of the board and prompting a clarification from the company’s corporate headquarters in Milan.

Vittorio Malacalza indirectly owns 7 per cent of Pirelli shares via the company’s 26 per cent share in Camfin. Tyres & Accessories understands that Malacalza does not own or control any Pirelli shares directly. And with this in mind the present situation must be seen in light of the ongoing – and highly complex – ownership/power dynamics at the top of Pirelli. Whether he jumped or was pushed the net results would seem to be in line with what a Financial Times report described as “an effort to shorten the chain of command at the group” a little over six months ago. 

Making his resignation, Malacalza said: “…I had noted that the formation of entrepreneurial decisions of importance in the life of the Company takes place in ways that do not allow me to make my contribution, as for example recently happened regarding the choices that were made with regard to Prelios”.

However, the Milan headquarters obviously see things differently and, in taking stock of this statement, wished to clarify Malacalza’s role in proceedings. According to an official statement on the subject that spent more time clarifying this point that it did confirming the departure of a board member, the Pirelli board unanimously approved the operation of asset reinforcement and industrial re-launch of Prelios S.p.A. at a meeting on 28 February 2013. 

Pirelli further explained that ahead of that meeting (on 23 February 2013) documents including an executive summary of the operation for the re-modulation of the financial debt connected to the industrial re-launch of Prelios along with an opinion of the Committee for Operations  and an “Assessment letter” from Barclays as well as slides illustrating the operation were made available to the now ex-board member.

Citing other occasions where Malacaza didn’t speak out against the changes being made to Prelios, Pirelli summarized the situations like this: “it should be underlined that all the operations reviewed by the Board of Directors at meetings in which Mr. Malacalza took part were approved unanimously.”