Massimo Battaini is the new CEO at the helm of Prysmian
Prysmian’s Board of Directors unanimously resolved to submit to the Ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting held on 18 April the name of Massimo Battaini for the position of Chief Executive Officer of Prysmian, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry.
Born in 1961, Massimo Battaini graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Milan Polytechnic and earned an MBA degree from SDA Bocconi. He began a long, brilliant career at Prysmian, after having worked at Pirelli for 15 years. Massimo Battaini replaces Valerio Battista, the outgoing CEO, who skilfully led the Group for 22 years, bringing it at the top of the industry.
From your professional education to your success as a manager: who is Massimo Battaini?
“I am a mechanical engineer, but I didn't want to study engineering. I wanted to study agriculture, as I liked nature. It was an uncle of mine who told me I should choose engineering, and he was far-sighted.”
After earning a degree from Milan Polytechnic, in 1987 Battaini began his career at the Pirelli Group, in the Tyres department, holding positions of responsibility in various areas until 2002, when he was transferred from the tyre to the cable department. For him, it was “a sign of destiny”.
In subsequent years, he took part in the acquisition — finalised in 2005 — of the Pirelli Cavi e Sistemi Energia business by Goldman Sachs, which transformed it into Prysmian S.r.l. After the completion of the transaction, Battaini moved to the United Kingdom, accepting to serve as CEO of Prysmian UK.
He went back to Milan after six years, in 2011, to manage Prysmian's historic acquisition of Draka Holding, the then No. 4 world player in the cable and optical fibre industry. It was Prysmian's very first step-up towards its cable market leadership.
In 2014, Valerio Battista appointed him Senior Vice President Energy Projects Business. The same year saw the launch of the high-power submarine and underground cables business that led — as Battaini stated — to a “period of great satisfactions, in which I had to run an extremely engaging and stimulating business.”
At the end of 2017, he received a call from Valerio Battista announcing that he would have liked him to manage the acquisition of General Cable. Battaini seized this challenging opportunity, which led him to move to North America for three years. During this period, he successfully managed the integration of the two groups.
When he came back to Italy, in January 2021, Massimo Battaini was promoted to Prysmian’s COO.
From Battista to Battaini: the end of an era and the strategy change
“Valerio has undeniably left his mark. He clearly shaped this company for 22 years. We have succeeded in becoming a world leader thanks to his acquisition strategy, which has led us to stand out for the best product range, geographical footprint and customer base. Now we have to follow the market demand, which however requires investments. The new organic strategy is therefore only a consequence of the previous one, and it would not be possible if we had not previously invested in a strategy of non-organic growth.”
According to Battaini, rather than a new era, it is the beginning of a new strategy. The Group will in fact adopt a new business approach — presented to the stakeholders at the last October’s Capital Markets Day — consistent with the changes occurred over the past few years in the market, which is increasingly focused on sustainability, digitalisation and energy transition — topics that are throwing new light on cables' crucial role.
It was precisely at the Capital Markets Day — during which Prysmian presented Connect to Lead, its new 5-year strategic plan (2023-2027) — that the Executive Leadership Team announced that the Company’s growth would no longer be pursued through M&As — as in the past — but in an organic manner, through higher capex and greater production capacity, in order to meet the increasing demand for cables, in line with the current market trends.
“Valerio Battista and I already knew each other from the Pirelli Tyres period, but our first actual meeting was when we started working together, in 2002.
The valuable lesson I've learned from him is the fact that he joined Prysmian as CEO, and nonetheless sat down with everyone to learn how the factory worked, how the product worked, what customers demanded. In this way, he actually taught us something important: regardless of your position, you have to know your product perfectly, because without understanding the product you cannot manage a company well.
This is a great lesson I carry with me.”
Massimo Battaini CEO, Prysmian
The acquisition of Encore Wire and the Q1 2024 results
The handover from Valerio Battista to Massimo Battaini was marked by the acquisition of the Texas-based company Encore Wire, announced on Monday, 15 April 2024:
“We are acquiring one of the strongest players in the industrial and building sector in the United States. It operates in a highly vertically-integrated, single-site campus, offering an attentive and efficient service and a broad customer portfolio,” explained Massimo Battaini.
The agreement — highly complementary to Prysmian’s strategy — was signed by Massimo Battaini for an implied Enterprise Value of €3.9 billion.
The main rationale that drove Massimo Battaini to consider this acquisition as an extraordinary opportunity for Prysmian to expand in the North American market was undoubtedly the complementarity of Prysmian’s and Encore’s portfolios.
“Through this acquisition, Prysmian will grow its North American presence, enhancing its portfolio and geographic mix, while significantly increasing the exposure to secular growth drivers. We look forward to welcoming the Encore Wire team to Prysmian and benefiting from the combined company’s enhanced product offerings and customer relationships.”
Moreover, the integrated results presented on 9 May confirmed that Prysmian had a solid and profitable start to 2024. As announced by Massimo Battaini:
“The first quarter results highlight an outstanding profitability, driven by the strong performance of the Power Grid and Transmission segments, while the order backlog stands at over €18 billion. These achievements demonstrate that Prysmian’s commitment to accelerating the energy transition globally, together with its solutions which meet the highest environmental standards, are continuing to deliver positive results.”