Pre-Annual General Meeting Information • Mar 5, 2021
Pre-Annual General Meeting Information
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Piaggio & C. S.p.A.
Dear Shareholders,
With the approval of the Financial Statements as of 31 December 2020, the term of office for the Board of Directors of your company, appointed by the ordinary Shareholders' Meeting of 16 April 2018, will expire; it is therefore necessary to appoint the new Board of Directors, subject to the determination of the number of members and term of office.
In this regard, we wish to remind you, in particular, of the following:
Pursuant to Article 12.1 of the Articles of Association, the Company is administered by a Board of Directors consisting of not less than 7 (seven) and not more than 15 (fifteen) members, in compliance with the provisions on gender balance laid down in Article 147-ter, paragraph 1-ter of Legislative Decree 58/1998 (the "Consolidated Law on Finance - TUF").
At the time of its appointment, the ordinary Shareholders' Meeting is required to determine the number of Board members within the aforesaid limits, as well as their term of office, which cannot exceed three financial years, where after their appointment expires as at the date of the Shareholders' Meeting called to approve the Financial Statements for the last financial year of their office. Directors may be re-elected.
Pursuant to Article 12.2 of the Articles of Association, Directors must possess the requisites envisaged by current legal requirements, the Articles of Association and other applicable regulations. Individuals cannot be appointed as Directors of the Company and, if they are appointed such appointment is void, unless they have gained at least three years' experience in:
a) administration and supervision activities, i.e. senior management tasks in joint stock companies with share capital of at least two million EUR; or
b) professional activities or a tenured university position in legal, economic, financial and technicalscientific fields strictly related to company operations; or
c) managerial functions with public bodies or the public administration sector operating in the credit, financial or insurance fields, or in any case in fields which are strictly related to the company operations.
The Directors must possess the requisites prescribed by currently applicable legal regulations; a minimum number of Directors equal to the minimum prescribed by legal regulations must possess the independence requisites set out in Article 148, paragraph 3, of the Consolidated Law on Finance.
If a Director no longer has the prescribed requisites his or her term of office shall immediately expire. If a Director falls short of the independence requisite described above his term of office does not expire if the minimum number of Directors prescribed by legal regulations still possesses such requisite.
Board of Directors appointment mechanism based on the list vote
Pursuant to Article 12.3 of the Articles of Association, Directors are appointed by the ordinary Shareholders' Meeting, in accordance with current regulation concerning gender balance and based on the lists submitted by Shareholders in which candidates must listed with a sequential number. Pursuant to the aforesaid article of the Articles of Association, lists with at least three candidates must have candidates of both genders in compliance with applicable regulations on gender balance and must therefore ensure that the least represented gender accounts for two fifths of directors elected (Article 147, paragraph 1-ter of the TUF), rounding upwards if applicable (Article 144 undecies.1, paragraph 3 of Consob Regulation 11971/1999).
Each shareholder, as well as shareholders that have entered into a significant shareholder agreement pursuant to Article 122 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, as well as the Parent Company, its subsidiaries and joint ventures pursuant to Article 93 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, cannot present or take part in presenting more than one list, either by proxy or through trust companies, nor can they vote on different list. The endorsements and votes cast in breach of such prohibition shall not be assigned to any list.
We also remind you that Shareholders submitting a "minority list" should consult the recommendations issued by Consob with notice no. DEM/9017893 of 26 February 2009.
Only those shareholders that, alone or as a group, represent at least 2.5% of the share capital, or another percentage established by legal or regulatory provisions, may nominate candidates on slates. It should be noted that, with the executive decision of the Corporate Governance Manager no. 44 of 29 January 2021, Consob set the relative share capital ownership threshold required to submit lists for election of the Board of Directors of the Company at 2.5%.
The lists presented by Shareholders shall be filed at least twenty-five days prior to the date set for the Shareholders' Meeting (first session), i.e. by 20 March 2021, according to the following procedures:
sent to the registered office, in Pontedera (PI), Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 25, on weekdays and working days (Mondays-Fridays), from 8.30 to 18.00 hours;
sent to the certified email address [email protected], or by fax, number 0587.27.29.63; in the case of submission of lists by fax/certified e-mail, a certified copy of a valid identity document of the submitters must also be sent.
Shareholders are also reminded that, whilst composing candidate lists, to comply with the provisions of Article 16, paragraph 1, letter d) of Consob Regulation 20249 of 28 December 2017 (the "Market Regulation"), which requires subsidiaries subject to the management and coordination of other Italian or foreign companies with shares listed on regulated markets to have a Board of Directors composed of a majority of independent directors, as defined by Article 16, paragraph 2, of the Market Regulation and therefore in possession of the requirements set forth in Article 148, paragraph 3, of the TUF and Article 2, recommendation 7 of the Corporate Governance Code approved by the Corporate Governance Committee (the "Corporate Governance Code"). Pursuant to aforementioned Article 16, paragraph 1, letter d) of the Market Regulation, moreover, those Directors who comply with the aforementioned requirements yet simultaneously hold the office of Director in the company that exercises management and coordination activities (i.e. Immsi S.p.A.) cannot be considered independent.
Together with each list, the following must be filed at the registered office by the aforementioned deadline:
Ownership of the shareholding required, pursuant to the foregoing, for the purposes of submitting the list, is attested by the qualified accounting intermediary sending to the Company the notice provided for by Article 43 of the Single Ruling on post-trading of Consob/the Bank of Italy, with regulations on central counterparties, central depositaries and centralised administration of 13 August 2018, also after having filed the list, provided that this takes place at least twenty-one days prior to the date set for the Shareholders' Meeting (first session), i.e. by 24 March 2021. Please note that ownership of the shareholding is determined for the shares that are recorded in the name of the Shareholder on the date on which the lists are filed with the Company.
Lists that fail to comply with the aforesaid legal provisions shall be deemed as not having been submitted.
The lists shall also be subject to other types of advertisement provided for by current applicable law and other regulations. In particular, at least twenty-one days prior to the date of the Shareholders' Meeting (i.e. by 24 March 2021) the lists will be made available to the public at the registered office, on the Company's website and via other regulated forms required by Consob.
Each candidate may be included in one list only, under penalty of ineligibility. Without prejudice to any other ground of ineligibility or forfeiture of right, no candidates may be included in the lists who do not possess the requisites prescribed by legal regulations, the Articles of Association or other provisions applicable to their respective positions.
Each person entitled to vote may vote for one list only.
The procedure for appointing Directors is as follows:
If the minority list at point b) did not obtain a percentage of votes equal to at least half of the required percentage, pursuant to what has been stated above, for the purpose of presenting the very same list, all the Directors to be appointed will be selected from the list at point a).
If, for candidates elected according to the above indicated methods, a number of directors having the requisites of independence is not ensured in accordance with Article 12 of the Articles of Association that is equal to the minimum number established by the law in relation to the overall number of the directors, the non-independent candidate elected last in progressive order from the list who had the highest number of shareholders' votes, mentioned in a) above, shall be substituted by the independent candidate not elected from the same list in accordance with the progressive order, or, in default, by the first independent candidate in accordance with the progressive order not elected from other lists, in accordance with the number of votes that each obtained. This substitution procedure shall take place until the Board of Directors is composed of the number of members having the requisites mentioned in Article 148 paragraph 3 of the Consolidated Law on Finance equalling at least the minimum prescribed by the law. Finally, should said procedure not ensure the result indicated in the foregoing, the substitution shall take place by a resolution passed by a relative majority at a shareholders' meeting, subject to the presentation of candidatures for persons having the above mentioned requisites.
If, in addition, with the candidates elected in the manner described above, a composition of the Board of Directors compliant with current legislation in force concerning the balance between genders is not ensured, the candidate of the more represented gender elected as last in the sequential order in the list that received the most votes shall be replaced by the first candidate of the less represented gender not elected from the same list according to the sequential order. This replacement procedure is repeated until a composition of the Board of Directors compliant with current legislation in force concerning the balance between genders has been ensured. If the aforementioned procedure does not ensure the last result indicated above, the replacement will take place by resolution passed by the Shareholders' Meeting by relative majority subject to the presentation of candidates belonging to the less represented gender.
Pursuant to Article 12.4 of the Articles of Association, if only one or no list is presented, the Shareholders' Meeting shall resolve according to the legally prescribed majorities, disregarding the above procedure, but without prejudice to the provisions of Article 12.2 of the Articles of Association and current legislation in force concerning gender balance.
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Lastly, the Board of Directors of the Company in the meeting of 2 March 2021, provided, in compliance with recommendations of the Corporate Governance Code (see Article 4, recommendation 23 adopted on a voluntary basis), guidance on the proposal of the Appointment Proposal Committee and considering self-assessment outcomes, guidance on its own quantitative and qualitative composition considered optimal, as well as the diversity policy for the composition of the Board of Directors.
[In this regard, the Board deemed it appropriate to provide the following indications:
in compliance with regulations on gender balance, at least two fifths of the elected Directors (rounded up if required), shall be of the least represented gender;
by virtue of the provisions of Article 16 of the Market Regulation, the majority of Directors must meet the requirements of independence pursuant to law and the Corporate Governance Code for listed companies in order to guarantee correct composition of the Committees: possession of the requisites of independence must be assessed mainly with regard to aspects of substance, also taking into due consideration the importance of continuity in the company's business;
Finally, you are required to determine the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors. In this regard, note that, pursuant to Article 18.1 of the Articles of Association, in addition to reimbursement of expenses incurred for the performance of the office, Directors are entitled to an annual remuneration that is decided by the Ordinary Shareholders' Meeting appointing them and which shall remain unchanged unless changed by resolution of the Shareholders' Meeting.
Alternatively, pursuant to Article 18.3 of the Articles of Association, the Shareholders' Meeting may fix an overall amount for the remuneration of all Directors, including those conferred with special positions, the allocation of which being established by the Board of Directors after consulting the Board of Statutory Auditors.
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Considering the recommendations of the Corporate Governance Code (Article 4, recommendation 23 adopted on a voluntary basis), Shareholders that submit a list with a number of candidates that is more than half the members to elect - are required to send by certified email [email protected] - proposals on the items for which the Directors have not prepared a specific draft resolution and, in particular, proposals on the process to appoint the management board (determining the number of members of the Board of Directors, as well as
annual fees), well in advance, so that the proposals may be published by the Company together with the lists.
Mantua, 2 March 2021
For the Board of Directors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Roberto Colaninno)
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