The slate proposing Lovaglio for a new mandate, submitted by shareholder Plt Holding, garnered 49.953% of the votes at the annual general meeting, prevailing over the outgoing board's list which received 38.8%, according to the voting results.
In total, Lovaglio's slate secured eight board seats compared to six for the outgoing board's list. A third slate, submitted by a group of funds, obtained 6.95% of the vote and one seat on the board.
The outgoing board's list of candidates, backed by Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, had proposed current Acea chief Fabrizio Palermo as CEO.
The outgoing chairman of MPS, Nicola Maione, although elected to the new board via the outgoing board's list, announced he was withdrawing his candidacy for the chairmanship.
Other notable figures elected from the outgoing board's list include Palermo, former Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Corrado Passera, and former UniCredit manager Carlo Vivaldi. Passera and Vivaldi had initially been touted as alternative CEO candidates to Palermo.
Former UniCredit chairman Cesare Bisoni joined the board via Lovaglio's slate.
The balance was tipped in Lovaglio's favor by Delfin, the bank's largest shareholder with a 17.5% stake, and Banco BPM with 3.7%.
In recent days, institutional investors such as Norges Bank and BlackRock had also signaled their intention to vote for Lovaglio's list.
More than 64% of the share capital was represented at the meeting.
MPS was the first Italian company to renew its board under the new Capital Law regulations, which govern how outgoing directors can propose their successors.
(Valentina Za, reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Andrea Mandalà)
