In 2004, Giulio Manfredonia directed an Italian version of the film Groundhog Day, titled È già ieri (It’s Already Yesterday) whose lead character gets caught in a time loop, and is forced to relive the same events day in, day out. By all accounts, it wasn’t very good.

Manfredonia would have done better to film the comings and goings at Pioneer Investments, the asset manager owned by Italian banking group UniCredit, which has now endured more sales processes over the last seven years, and been inspected by more potential bidders, than investment bankers care to remember.