Key UniCredit shareholder
Leonardo Del Vecchio on Monday came out against a capital hike
by Italy's biggest bank. "I don't know if it's necessary. What
use is capital for banks today? I don't think they need capital,
it's a current mania, doing capital hikes," said the eyewear
giant Luxottica founder and chairman, who has 2% of UniCredit -
a strategically important share under Italy's complex system of
cross-shareholdings. Del Vecchio, 81, added that the
once-central role of Milanese merchant bank Mediobanca to that
system had been superseded. "I don't think that 'drawing rooms'
are needed much any more," he said, referring to Mediobanca's
old nickname as the 'good drawing room' of Italian finance.
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