Entrepreneur Roberto Colaninno, chairman and CEO of scooter maker Piaggio and one of Italy's best-known dealmakers, has died, his investment company IMMSI said on Saturday.
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He turned 80 last week. No cause of death was given.
Roberto Colaninno was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Piaggio & C. S.p.A., Chairman of IMMSI S.p.A. (the company that controls the Piaggio Group) and Chair of the Advisory Board of Piaggio Fast Forward, a company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA).
After his early experience in Italian auto components maker Fiaam, of which he became Chief Executive Officer, in 1981 Mr. Colaninno founded the Sogefi company in Mantua.
Under his leadership, Sogefi expanded to become one of Italy’s primary auto components players and a stock-listed company. During this period, he held senior positions in a number of leading US and British automotive multinationals.
In September 1996, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Olivetti, at a time when the Ivreabased company was experiencing a serious crisis. Thanks in part to international agreements, he rapidly restored Olivetti to health and transformed it into a telecommunication holding.
In February 1999, Mr. Colaninno led Olivetti in a public tender offer for Telecom Italia worth more than €60 billion, the largest takeover bid ever made in Italy up to that time.
Olivetti acquired approximately 51% of Telecom Italia and Mr. Colaninno was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company, as well as Chairman of TIM, holding these posts until July 31, 2001.
In September 1998, he established Omniaholding S.p.A., the family-owned financial company of which he was Chairman.
In September 2002, Mr. Colaninno joined other partners to form Omniainvest S.p.A., a holding in which Omniaholding currently owns the majority. In November 2002, through Omniaholding and Omniainvest, he acquired IMMSI.
Beginning in February 2003, IMMSI also acquired shareholdings in industrial and services companies, notably control of the Piaggio Group (PIA.MI) and of the Intermarine Group.
In 2008 the IMMSI Group was one of the founders of CAI (Compagnia Aerea Italiana), the company that acquired the Alitalia and Airone airlines.
Mr. Colaninno has served as Chairman and a member of the Alitalia Board of Directors, as a director of Mediobanca, Capitalia and other financial entities, and as a member of the Confindustria Management Committee and the Confindustria Board.
In 2001, he was awarded an honorary degree in Business & Economics from the University of Lecce. In 2013, he was awarded an honorary master’s diploma in Management, Innovation and Services Engineering from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, a special-statute university in Pisa.
In 2000, he was made a Cavaliere del Lavoro of the Italian Republic, and in 2014 he was
made an Officer of the Legion d’Honneur. ■
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