By Christopher Emsden
ROME--Billionaire businessman Diego Della Valle called for all
investors in RCS Mediagroup SpA (RCS.MI), the unprofitable
publisher that owns Corriere della Sera, to sell their stakes and
make way for a new group of "private and free" Italians to take
control of it as a pure publishing enterprise.
"Italian press freedom is in danger" due to ownership struggles
at the country's largest daily newspaper, investor Mr. Della Valle
said in an open letter to President Giorgio Napolitano published
Tuesday.
Mr. Della Valle, who controls Tod's SpA (TOD.MI), the luxury
shoemaker worth 3.5 billion euros on the Milan bourse, said in the
letter: "I am writing you, president, because others aren't willing
to follow this path, and we need a strong voice that's above the
fray ... who can press for the modernization of the country."
He said he would expect to sell his own share in RCS, now 8.8%,
but specifically said that Fiat SpA (F.NI), Mediobanca SpA (MB.MI)
and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI), should sell their stakes. Fiat
recently doubled its stake in RCS to 20%, spending EUR100 million
in what Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, who has held back new
car models and furloughed much of the work force, called
"strategic."
RCS Media's recent EUR400 million capital increase, staged to
avoid bankruptcy and pay down bank loans, gave existing investors a
chance to increase or dilute their stakes. Fiat, Mediobanca and
Intesa Sanpaolo all spent money to increase their stakes, while the
Benetton family and other investors opted to be diluted.
RCS Mediagroup has long been controlled by a shareholder
syndicate supported by Italy's old industrial dynasties and
corporate insiders. Only 15% of the shares in the company, whose
market capitalization has shrunk to below EUR600 million, have
freely traded.
"The outcome of this matter isn't just about RCS but will be
seen by many Italians as a strong signal as to whether people
really want the country to change, or if instead the plan is to
leave it in the hands of those who contributed so much to drag it
into the precarious condition it lives in today," Mr. Della Valle
declared in his letter.
Mr. Della Valle often engages in vocal criticism of other
members of Italy's tightly-knit business elite.
Corriere della Sera has a circulation of 407,000 print
copies.
--Write to Christopher Emsden at chris.emsden@dowjones.com