Key Meloni aide hints at new term for CEOs of Italy’s main state-controlled groups

Italy’s main state-controlled companies have performed “very well” in recent years, a key ally of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, hinting their chief executives were poised to get fresh mandates as a new round of appointments looms. CEOs at companies including energy majors Enel and Eni and defence group Leonardo are due to be nominated in the next weeks, in what is traditionally seen as a test for political leaders seeking to assert their influence over key sectors of the economy. Meloni’s coalition made its first raft of appointments in 2023, just a few months after taking office, reappointing Claudio Descalzi at the helm of Eni for a fourth term and replacing the heads of Enel and Leonardo.

“Objectively speaking, all state-controlled companies have performed very well, so the first round of appointments went well,” Giovanbattista Fazzolari, a cabinet undersecretary who often handles key issues for Meloni, said late on Tuesday. Three sources told Reuters the government was ready to grant a second three-year term to Enel chief Flavio Cattaneo and Leonardo’s Roberto Cingolani, and to confirm Eni’s Descalzi for a record fifth mandate. While Meloni’s coalition — which includes her Brothers of Italy party, the League and Forza Italia — seeks continuity on CEO roles, the sources said chairmen could be replaced to reshuffle party representation within the company boards.

Eni, Enel and Leonardo have a combined market capitalisation of 193 billion euros ($227 billion), according to LSEG data. The same sources said it was unclear whether Giuseppina Di Foggia, nominated by Meloni in 2023 as head of power grid operator Terna, would obtain a new mandate. Meloni’s government, Italy’s third-longest serving since World War Two, will be able to renew appointments it made three years earlier — a situation Fazzolari called an “anomaly”. “We will have this odd situation of having to decide who to confirm and who not to,” he told reporters on the sideline of a conference in Rome.