Elkann in the driving seat with Exor's move on PartnerRe

John Elkann, 39, the scion of the Agnelli dynasty behind Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, this week signalled his corporate coming of age.

Exor, the investment company of the Italian family of which Mr Elkann is chairman and chief executive, on Tuesday launched a $6.4bn bid to scupper Axis Capital's tie-up with PartnerRe, the US-listed reinsurer.

At Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Mr Elkann, who is chairman having joined Fiat's board at the age of 22 when he was studying at Turin polytechnic, has always, inevitably, been overshadowed by Sergio Marchionne, his larger-than-life chief executive.

But with the PartnerRe bid, the tall, softly-spoken grandson of Giovanni Agnelli, the industrialist, indicated that as he enters his 40th year he is ready to step out of the shadows.

In a conference call following the bid, Mr Elkann, who can have a guarded, princely mien that is a reflection of the Agnelli family's status as Italy's de facto royals, said with a confidence he was ready to close the deal and was fully funded. Part of the proceeds will come from the sale of Cushman & Wakefield, Exor's €2bn real estate business, which is expected to close in the next couple of months, the rest from Exor's €1bn war chest and credit lines.

The move on PartnerRe is the clearest sign of the transformation of Exor under Mr Elkann. In Exor, he has streamlined the family's assets into one listed company with a stronger focus on industrial investment.

To date, Exor has maintained its ownership of a third of FCA and CNH Industrial, its sister company, although that may change as Mr Marchionne has been open about seeking other alliances. In his turn, Mr Elkann has been frank about his desire to diversify Exor's exposure beyond industrials.

The acquisition of PartnerRe serves that end, and if done well, reinsurance also has the potential to generate a lot of cash that can then be used for more investment - as shown by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, a model Mr Elkann has studied closely. He is even using Byron Trott, who also advises Mr Buffett, on the PartnerRe deal.

It is also the latest step in Mr Elkann's shift of the Agnelli family's holdings into a dollar-denominated, global businesses. 

Born in New York, son of Gianni Agnelli's daughter Margherita and Alain Elkann, her first husband, the tilt to the US is a natural progression. 

Mr Elkann's godfather is Henry Kissinger and he openly admits an affinity with Pritzker, Ridley and Walton US industrial dynasties.

He has spent the past decade quietly building up a network to rival his grandfather. A regular participant at Sun Valley, Berkshire Hathaway and Bilderberg conferences, he sits on the boards of the Economist and News Corp.

He has sought to foster relations among industrialists and financiers such as Jorge Paulo Lemann, Brazil's richest man and the founder of 3G, the private equity group,

In Italy, he remains a contentious figure after Fiat shut plants and battled unionists on its road to internationalisation.

But despite expectations he would quit the country entirely, he has remained a presence. In typical low-key fashion, he turned up at Milan's Bocconi University last month with Lavinia Borromeo, his wife, with whom he has three children, to listen to Ginevra, his sister, speak on the resilience of family businesses.

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