Many in Italy were aghast when tyre tycoon Marco Tronchetti Provera sold Pirelli, one of the crown jewels of the country’s manufacturing sector, to ChemChina in a $7.7bn takeover in 2015.
Politicians and investors feared Pirelli’s technology would be transferred to its new Chinese parent, now part of state-owned chemicals champion Sinochem. But Tronchetti Provera — once married into the Pirelli family — defended the sale, which allowed him to stay at the helm of the 150-year-old business known as the “Prada of tyres”.
Now he is suffering seller’s remorse amid mounting tensions between the Milan-listed company’s Italian and Chinese shareholders as Sinochem seeks greater sway over the constitution of Pirelli’s board.