ENI Eni Spa

By Eric Sylvers and Giovanni Legorano 

ROME -- The Italian government on Saturday made a series of nominations for the top management of large listed companies it controls, including confirming the chief executive of oil major Eni SpA for a second three-year term.

Claudio Descalzi will stay on at Eni after steering the company through a period of low oil prices that battered the company's bottom line and led it to several multibillion-euro loses.

The executive has won plaudits from analysts and government officials for continuing the company's exploration success, which helped temper the economic effects of the 50% drop in the price of crude oil in the six months after he took over and the continued weak prices that followed.

Mr. Descalzi and the other nominees, including a new executive to lead defense company Leonardo SpA, must be confirmed by shareholders, but the government's large stakes ensure that is a formality.

The government owns a third of Eni, which provides the country's coffers with about EUR3 billion in annual dividend payments.

The nomination process at Italy's state controlled companies is the subject of venomous debates because of their size and importance -- together they make up around one-third of the Italian stock market.

Saturday's nominations, like the last round of appointments that three years ago represented one of the first tests of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's promise to deliver economic change, was a mix of continuity and change.

Despite the accolades Mr. Descalzi has received over the past three years, there had been some question about his future because magistrates in Milan are seeking to put him on trial for alleged corruption tied to a controversial Nigerian deal.

A judge will decide later this year or in early 2018 whether Mr. Descalzi and other current and former Eni executives, including the CEO's predecessor, must stand trial. Mr. Descalzi and the other executives have denied any wrongdoing.

Mr. Descalzi, a petroleum engineer by training who before taking the helm spent three decades at Eni prospecting for oil and gas, has left his imprint after three years as CEO by continuing the exploration success while implementing a strategy of selling stakes in large oil and gas fields soon after the initial discovery. This has helped Eni share production costs while raising funds for future exploration.

Veteran banker Alessandro Profumo will replace Mauro Moretti at the helm of Leonardo. After having led an acquisition spree at UniCredit SpA which created Italy's largest lender and the only one with a sizable international presence, Mr. Profumo chaired troubled Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena from 2012 to 2015.

While he was at the helm of the Tuscan bank, he ran two share sales for a total of EUR8 billion which allowed the bank to stay afloat and pay back a government loan it secured in 2012.

The Treasury also confirmed the head of energy giant Enel SpA Francesco Starace, while it replaced the CEO of the post office Francesco Caio, who was named three years ago to run the company's privatization, with Matteo Del Fante, former head of power grid company Terna SpA.

Write to Eric Sylvers at eric.sylvers@wsj.com and Giovanni Legorano at giovanni.legorano@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 18, 2017 10:08 ET (14:08 GMT)

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