Under the 2016-2019 plan we will continue to reduce our equity investments, in line with the previous three-year plan. This will give us access to additional funds to develop the banking business.

Reducing the equity portfolio reflects a change of direction from our old model, under which we were mainly an equity holding company. In the last four years we have sold equity investments worth approx €2 billion. Major disposals in recent years include Telco, Gemina/Atlantia, Pirelli, Cashes UCI, Saks and Santé. We intend to sell further holdings from the AFS portfolio and will also reduce our stake in Assicurazioni Generali from 13% to about 10%.

We launched our acquisition strategy in 2013 with the approval of the 2014-2016 plan. This decision marked a strategic watershed, as previously Mediobanca had favoured organic growth. Upon presentation of the 2016-2019 plan, we also announced an agreement with the Mediolanum group for the acquisition of the remaining 50% of Banca Esperia. This move is part of the strategy to develop the wealth management sector, which also includes the acquisition of Barclays, Cairn Capital and Ram AI.

With the agreement to acquire a 19.9% stake in BFI Finance, leading Indonesian independent consumer credit operator, Compass adds to the domestic consumer credit business a second market with great potential, strong “growth”, high margins and low risk profile.