Pre-Annual General Meeting Information • Oct 11, 2019
Pre-Annual General Meeting Information
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EXPLANATORY REPORT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS



FINCANTIERI S.p.A.
Registered Office in Trieste, Via Genova n.1 Share Capital EUR 862.980.725,70 - fully paid up VAT No. 00629440322 Tax Code and Companies Registry (Venezia Giulia) No. 00397130584 Trieste Economic and Administrative Index No. 89063
Mutual early termination of the engagement of External Statutory Auditor granted to the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers S.p.A. and appointment of a new External Statutory Auditor for audit engagement for the term 2020 – 2028. Determination of the relevant fee. Inherent and consequent resolutions.
Dear Shareholders,
As you are well aware of, the engagement of External Statutory Auditor of FINCANTIERI S.p.A. ("FINCANTIERI" or the "Company") currently in place has been granted to PricewaterhouseCoopers S.p.A. ("PwC") by the Ordinary Shareholders' Meeting of the Company held on 28 February 2014 and is now going to expire with the approval of the Financial Statements relating to financial year 2021.
PwC has been appointed as firm acting as External Statutory Auditor for Cassa Depositi e Prestiti S.p.A. ("CDP"), the indirect controlling Shareholder of Fincantieri, through Fintecna S.p.A. The above mentioned engagement will expire for CDP at the Shareholders' Meeting that will be called for the approval of the Financial Statements relating to financial year 2019.
In view of such expiration, CDP has started – during 2018 – the necessary activities to proceed with the selection procedures able to identify a new External Statutory Auditor. The decision to anticipate by one year the selection procedure as compared to the natural expiration of the engagement of External Statutory Auditor (i.e. the approval of the 2019 Financial Statements) has been conceived first of all taking into account the need to comply with the new limits introduced by the EU Regulation no. 537/2014 dated 16 April 2014 as a guarantee of the independence of the External Statutory Auditor, that prevent public-interest entities ("PIE") – as both CDP and the Fincantieri are – from granting, in the financial year immediately preceding the commencement of the new auditing period, certain types of engagements to the subject which is then appointed as new External Statutory Auditor (so-called cooling-inperiod).
In such scenario, CDP has valuated the opportunity to structure, with the involvement of the committees deputed to internal control and auditing (i.e. the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors) of CDP itself and of the subsidiaries taking part to the "CDP Group" (such term referring to, exclusively for the purposes of the appointment of an External Statutory Auditor, all the subsidiaries which fall within the consolidation area of CDP), a single tender proceeding (the "Single Proceeding") aiming at, where possible and taking into account the interest of each subsidiary, identifying a single External Statutory Auditor for the CDP Group.
CDP has therefore required the companies of the CDP Group to evaluate the opportunity of adhering to the Single Proceeding for the appointment of the new External Statutory Auditor, starting from financial year 2020.
The Board of Internal Statutory Auditors of Fincantieri, after previous consultations with the Boards of Internal Statutory Auditors of the subsidiaries of the Fincantieri making part of the consolidation area, has expressed itself in favour of the Company's participation in the Single Selection Proceeding, and has informed the Board of Directors of Fincantieri which, in July 2018, considering the participation to the tender aiming to the appointment of a single External Statutory Auditor for the CDP Group as compliant with the interest of Fincantieri and of its subsidiaries, also in consideration of its functionality to the purpose of achieving a significant reduction of the auditing costs, has approved the appointment of CDP as coordinator of the above-mentioned Single Proceeding through the formalisation of a specific engagement to itself and its subsidiaries.
Consequently, CDP has called for a specific European tender using the restricted procedure for the selection of a single External Statutory Auditor for its Group.
The results of the above-described procedure, which culminated with the final shortlisting of the first two classified auditing firms which are, respectively, Deloitte & Touche S.p.A. ("Deloitte") and EY S.p.A. ("EY"), have been illustrated by the commission to the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors during January 2019. Subsequently, on 19 March 2019, the Shareholders' Meeting of CDP has appointed the accounting firm Deloitte as External Statutory Auditor for the 2020-2028 term.
On 22 February 2019, Deloitte sent the Company a proposal for the engagement of an External Statutory Auditor for Fincantieri S.p.A., together with the Compliance Certificate of the Non-Financial Statement , and the table of engagements of the Fincantieri group companies, on the basis of which some assessments have been conducted relating to the completeness of the services and the assessment of the hours and fees applied, as requested by CDP on completion of the tender procedure.
Fincantieri requested PwC the availability to reach – starting from approval of the Financial Statements, by the Shareholders' Meeting, that will close on 31 December 2019, subsequent to the issuing of the auditing reports concerning the financial statements and the consolidated Financial Statements as at 31 December 2019 – the mutual early termination of the engagement of External Statutory Auditor granted by the Ordinary Shareholders' Meeting on 28 February 2014, as well as of other auditing engagements subsequently granted by Fincantieri as a supplementation of the latter and the auditing engagement granted by the subsidiaries, in compliance with what provided for by article 13 of the Italian Legislative Decree dated 27 January 2010, no. 39 ("Italian Legislative Decree n. 39/2010") and by article 7 of the Italian Ministerial Decree dated 28 December 2012, no. 261 ("Italian Ministerial Decree . n. 261/2012").
On 10 September 2019, PwC has communicated its availability to mutually terminate its engagement of External Statutory Auditor currently in place, notwithstanding that, in compliance with what provided for under the above-mentioned article 7, paragraph 3, of the Italian Ministerial Decree n. 261/2012, such termination will be effective starting from the approval of the Financial Statements that will end on 31 December 2019, and is conditioned to the resolution of the Shareholders' Meeting of the Company and to the granting of the new engagement of External Statutory Auditor to the External Auditor of the CDP Group, which has been identified as the auditing firm Deloitte. For the purpose of confirming the abovementioned terms Fincantieri and PwC have reached a final agreement for the mutual early termination of the above-mentioned engagement at the terms described above.
The Board of Internal Statutory Auditors of Fincantieri has therefore drafted the document attached to this Report, finding that it is possible for Fincantieri, in accordance with the law in force, to either keep the audit engagement with PwC until its expiry or to terminate the agreement, based on the combined provisions of Articles 4 and 7 of Ministerial Decree No. 261/2012, and grant the engagement to Deloitte, which has already been appointed by the Parent Company.

Pursuant to article 7, paragraph 2, of Ministerial Decree no. 261/2012, the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors also issued its positive opinion on the mutual early termination of the engagement with PwC and the formalisation of the engagement of External Statutory Auditor of Fincantieri S.p.A for financial years from 2020 to 2028 to the accounting firm Deloitte, finding that for the reasons stated in the attached opinion, aligning the auditing of the group is of interest to the Company.
* * * * *
The above stated, we submit to your approval the following proposed resolution:
"The Ordinary Shareholders' Meeting of Fincantieri S.p.A.,
to approve, pursuant to the Italian Legislative Decree dated 27 January 2010, no. 39, and the Italian Ministerial Decree dated 28 December 2012, no. 261, the mutual early termination of the engagement of External Statutory Auditor granted to the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers S.p.A. by the Ordinary Shareholders'' Meeting of Fincantieri S.p.A. on 28 February 2014, consistent with the reasoned opinion by the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors, starting from the approval of the Financial Statements, by the Shareholders' Meeting, that will close at 31 December 2019, subsequent to the issuing of the auditing reports on the financial statements and of the consolidated Financial Statements as at 31 December 2019 and in any case with effectiveness subordinated to the formalisation, by the Shareholders' Meeting, of the new engagement of External Statutory Auditor at the same auditor appointed by the Shareholders' Meeting of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti S.p.A.;
Trieste, 26 September 2019
For the Board of Directors The Chairman of the Board of Directors Giampiero Massolo
On 8 June 2018, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti S.p.A. ("CDP" or "Parent Company"), considering the expiry of the engagement of External Statutory Auditor granted by CDP to PricewaterhouseCoopers S.p.A. ("PwC"), with the approval of the financial statements as at 31 December 2019, through its own internal bodies and in agreement with its Board of Internal Statutory Auditors launched, in June 2018, the process for selecting a new External Statutory Auditor for the 2020-2028 nine-year period.
The Parent Company has assessed whether to launch this selection process earlier than the expiry of the engagement with PwC considering:
Considering the forthcoming expiry of the engagement of External Statutory Auditor granted by numerous subsidiaries of CDP, as well as the willingness to use, insofar as possible, for better efficiency and streamlining of costs, a single External Statutory Auditor for the CDP Group, a Single Proceeding for the tender has been extended by CDP to all subsidiaries directly or indirectly controlled and fully consolidated ("CDP Group").
Given the above, Fincantieri S.p.A. received a notice with which it has been requested to assess whether or not to join said Single Proceeding for the tender. Regarding this request, the Board of Directors of Fincantieri S.p.A.:
(i) having found that this process would fulfil a need to have a single External Statutory Auditor for the group which would allow it to achieve significant benefits in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and streamlining of costs in auditing and better coordination of information flows towards the parent company, thus improving supervision;
(ii) having acknowledged that the engagement with PwC, the current External Statutory Auditor, was granted by the Shareholders' Meeting of Fincantieri S.p.A. held on 28 February 2014 until the approval of the financial statements for the financial year ending at 31 December 2021;
(iii) having shared CDP's proposal with its Board of Internal Statutory Auditors (also in its capacity as the Committee for Internal Control and Audit) and with other relevant bodies;
(iv) having acknowledged that the proposed procedure safeguarded the independent decision-making power of Fincantieri S.p.A.'s bodies, allowed for the participation of numerous entities and admitted only participants meeting the professional, organisational, technical and economic criteria necessary to meet all the needs of Fincantieri S.p.A. and its subsidiaries both in regard to complexity and geographic diversification;
resolved, on 26 July 2018, to join the Single Proceeding, appointing CDP as an agent with representation powers to carry out the Single Proceeding.
The entire Single Proceeding was carried out in compliance with the rules laid down in the Italian Public Procurement Code to which CDP is subject and in compliance with the principle of independent decision-making power of the companies participating in the tender and their supervisory bodies. Considering the nature of the service to be awarded, the tender process chosen, among those admitted by the Italian Public Procurement Code, was the European tender using the restricted procedure (Article 61 of Legislative Decree No. 50/2016), which was favourably accepted by all the companies of the CDP Group for the following reasons:
the confidentiality assured on the tender documentation, transmitted only to the bidders who passed the pre-selection phase through the letter of invitation;
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the efficiency of the Selection Committee (the "Committee") called upon to carry out the preliminary assessment of the bids received by entities possessing the minimum requirements for eligibility to participate in the tender.
The latter, selected and also shared with the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors of Fincantieri S.p.A, were selected on the balance of two distinct needs:
More specifically, the single tender proceeding was broken down in numerous stages, with the main stages as follows:
follows: Deloitte & Touche S.p.A., KPMG S.p.A. and EY S.p.A. (jointly referred to as the "Participants");
Participation in the Single Proceeding was reserved for economic operators in possession of the following general requirements, of professional competence, economic-financial capacity and technicalprofessional capacity:
registration in the register of external statutory auditors of the Ministry of Economy and Finance;
in the financial year ended in 2017, attainment of a turnover from the statutory audit of annual and/or consolidated financial statements equal to at least EUR 9,000,000;
The Participants were asked to submit a bid for the provision of auditing services and audit-related services, identified on the basis of the indications provided by each company participating in the tender procedure having appointed CDP as an agent with representation powers.
The criterion for awarding the tender referred to in the Single Proceeding was the most economically advantageous bid within the meaning of Article 95 of Legislative Decree No. 50/2016 (Italian Public Procurement Code).
The score assigned to each Participant, equal to a maximum of 100 points, was divided between the technical score (maximum 70 points) and economic score (maximum 30 points), in accordance with the criteria set out below.
For the purposes of assigning the technical score, the following evaluation parameters were established:
The Single Proceeding pursued, among others, the objective of allowing the CDP Group companies to save on fees for auditing and audit-related services compared to those recorded in 2017.
To this end, the asking price was equal to the amount of auditing fees paid in 2017 by the CDP Group, decreased by 10%; the Participants were then asked to apply a discount on that asking price (discount offered), also applicable for additional services (specific and otherwise). Within the scope of the Single Proceeding, a mechanism for additional discounts was provided, to be implemented in proportion to the number and economic scale of the auditing tasks entrusted by each CDP Group company independently choosing to assign the task to the same auditor appointed by the by Shareholders' Meeting of the Parent Company.
The ranking of the technical scores assigned by the Committee was as follows (in descending order):
The scores obtained by the Participants on the basis of their economic bids were as follows (in descending order):
Upon completion of the Single Proceeding, the following were the short-listed as successful bidders, in order of ranking (the "Successful Bidders"):
Following the award, Deloitte & Touche S.p.A. submitted its proposal for auditing directly to Fincantieri S.p.A., which the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors and the Internal Audit department have checked to ensure that the proposed conditions were consistent, also in relation to the hours and rates proposed, with the bid made in the Single Proceeding referring to Fincantieri Company S.p.A. and its subsidiaries.
A summary is provided below on the economic content of the bid received by Fincantieri S.p.A. in relation to auditing services and audit-related services that, compared with the current costs, leads to an overall saving on an annual basis of about EUR 90,000, equal to 22% less than the current expenditure; the saved amounts to approximately 25% if all the subsidiaries of Fincantieri S.p.A. included in the tender are considered:
| FINCANTIERI SPA (EUR/thousands) |
PwC year 2018 | Deloitte & Touche S.p.A. |
Fee | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hours* | Fees | Hours | Fees | comparison | ||
| Auditing of financial statements, including: | ||||||
| - assessing the consistency of the management report and corporate governance information with the financial statements and compliance of the report with law |
3,100 | 257.4 | 1,968 | 140.9 | -116.5 | |
| - assessing that company accounts are duly held and the proper entry of management events in the accounting records |
||||||
| - activities required for the submission of tax returns | ||||||
| Auditing of consolidated financial statements, including the reporting package |
350 | 31.3 | 787 | 56.4 | 25.1 | |
| Auditing of the half-year consolidated financial statements alone |
600 | 60.6 | 1,178 | 84.4 | 23.8 | |
| Total Auditing | 4,050 | 3,933 | ||||
| Compliance certificate for the Non-Financial Statements |
53.5 | 31.0 | -22.5 |
| Total proposed fee | 402.8 | 312.7 | -90.1 | -22% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
(*) Hours proposed 2013-2021
These effects do not include the additional benefit that may result from the above-mentioned mechanism for additional discounts that could reach a further discount of 6% if the engagement of External Statutory Auditor is granted to Deloitte & Touche S.p.A. by the majority of the CDP Group companies.
With reference to the fees requested, it is also necessary to consider that the following:
The Board of Internal Statutory Auditors of Fincantieri S.p.A. has always been kept up to date with the outcome of each stage of the Single Proceeding and met to share the progress and outcome with the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors of CDP together with the board of internal statutory auditors of the other companies of the CDP Group.
More specifically, the outcome of the tender was examined by the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors of Fincantieri S.p.A. together with the supervisory bodies and relevant bodies of other CDP Group companies participating in the Single Proceeding, during the joint meeting of the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors of CDP and other Group Companies on 16 January 2019.
The Board of Internal Statutory Auditors of Fincantieri S.p.A. has been able to assess that the bids submitted within the tender procedure were high-level, without significant differences in terms of quality and quantity of the services proposed and received a similar technical valuation; therefore, the price element was decisive for the final ranking, making the bid of Deloitte & Touche S.p.A. the best in terms of price versus quality.
Given the foregoing, and considered:
the company, having shared the determination in question with the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors, asked PwC whether they were willing to agree to a mutual termination, with effect from the 2020 financial year, of the engagement of External Statutory Auditor granted to it by the Shareholders' Meeting of Fincantieri of 28 February 2014.
By letter dated10 September 2019, PwC notified Fincantieri of its willingness to mutually terminate the agreement for audit services currently in effect. The mutual termination agreement shall be effective from the date of approval of the financial statements for the financial year ended at 31 December 2019, subject to the following two conditions: (i) the Shareholders' Meeting of Fincantieri S.p.A. appoints the new External Statutory Auditor; and (ii) said new statutory auditor is the same as that appointed by CDP S.p.A. (Deloitte & Touche S.p.A.).
* * * * *
In light of the foregoing, the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors:
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and pursued through the accession by Fincantieri to the Single Proceeding for the selection of the new External Statutory Auditor for the CDP Group;
a favourable opinion the mutual early termination of the engagement of External Statutory Auditor granted to the auditing company PwC by the Shareholders' Meeting of Fincantieri S.p.A. on 28 February 2014;
granting the engagement of External Statutory Auditor of the separate and consolidated financial statements of Fincantieri S.p.A. as well as the other services listed in the proposal above for the term of nine financial years and, more specifically, for the financial years ending from 31 December 2020 to 31
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December 2028 to Deloitte & Touche S.p.A., in accordance with the economic conditions contained in the bid submitted to Fincantieri S.p.A. by Deloitte & Touche S.p.A. and summarised above.
The Board of Internal Statutory Auditors also states that the above proposal was not influenced by third parties and that in accordance with the Article 16, paragraph 6, of Regulation (EU) No. 537/2014, no clause was applied restricting the choice to certain categories or lists of statutory auditors or auditing firms.
Trieste, 19 September 2019
Mr. Gianluca Ferrero (Chairman of the Board of Internal Statutory Auditors)
Ms. Fioranna Negri
Mr. Roberto Spada
TRIESTE, 29 January 2019
OUR FILE NO.
YOUR FILE NO.
PROTOCOL NO. CO-AUD-10/2019 REGISTERED LETTER DELIVERED BY HAND
PricewaterhouseCoopers S.p.A, Via Poscolle, 43
33100 - Udine (UD)
Dear Sirs,
we refer to the engagement conferred on you by the Shareholders' Meeting of FINCANTIERI S.p.A. on 28 February 2014 for the statutory audit for the period 2013-2021 and its subsequent extension, approved by the Board of Directors of the company on 5 May 2014.
To this regard, we inform you that CDP and the companies of the CDP Group, in view of the imminent expiry of the engagement previously conferred on PricewaterhouseCoopers S.p.A. ("PwC") for the nine-year period 2011-2019 - also based on the instructions of the respective Audit Committees (hereinafter also referred to as the "CCIRC", which is an acronym that also refers to the Supervisory Body in relation to companies that do not fall within the definitions of Articles 16 and 19 of Legislative Decree No. 39/2010) - have jointly decided to launch a single tender procedure aimed, as far as possible, at identifying - in compliance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) no. 537 of 16 April 2014 (hereinafter the "Regulation"), Legislative Decree no. 39 of 17 January 2010 as amended by Legislative Decree 135/2016 in implementation of Directive 2014/56/EU (hereinafter the "Legislative Decree 39/2010") and Legislative Decree no. 50 of 18 April 2016 - a single group auditor.
This single tender procedure addresses the need to preserve, as far as possible, the principle of a single auditor within the CDP Group (currently implemented), which was recognised as a market practice in the previous regulatory system and can also be implemented following recent regulatory changes in the field of statutory audit (in particular, the Regulation and Legislative Decree 39/2010).
FINCANTIERI S.p.A. has autonomously decided to adhere to this tender procedure by giving CDP a specific disclosed agency.
The objectives pursued by CDP and its subsidiaries, including FINCANTIERI S.p.A., include to ensure, to the extent that Group companies select the same auditor:
In light of the foregoing and following the recent contacts, we hereby ask you to confirm your willingness to proceed with the consensual termination, as of the financial year 2020, of i) the engagement conferred by the above-mentioned Shareholders' Meeting of 28 February 2014 for the statutory audit of the Company for the financial years 2013-2021, ii) the engagement for the statutory audit conferred by the subsidiaries, and iii) the engagement for the limited audit of the consolidated non-financial declaration for the financial years 2017 to 2021.
We kindly ask you to acknowledge receipt of this letter.
Kind regards
FINCANTIERI S.p.A.
The Chief Executive Officer Giuseppe Bono [Signature]
Fincantieri SpA Via Genova 1 34121 Trieste TS
Udine, 10 September 2019
we refer to your communication of 29 January 2019, whereby you informed us that your company Fincantieri SpA (hereinafter the "Company") has adhered to the single tender procedure launched by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA (hereinafter "CDP") aimed, as far as possible, at identifying a single Group auditor.
In the above mentioned communication, we were asked to adhere to the proposal for early consensual termination, as from the date of approval of the financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2019, following the issue of the audit reports on the consolidated financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2019, of the audit engagement conferred on us by your company's Shareholders' Meeting concerning the statutory audit of the company for the years 2013 - 2021.
We hereby confirm that we are willing to accept your proposal for the consensual termination of the audit engagement, in accordance with the terms and timing provided for in the attached Agreement for the consensual termination of the Contract.
As specified in this Agreement, it is understood that the consensual termination referred to in Legislative Decree No. 39 of 27 January 2010, as well as in the Regulation subsequently adopted by the Ministerial Decree of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance No. 261 of 28 December 2012, will take effect only from the date of approval of the financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2019 and on condition that, on that date:
As a confirmation of the above, we send you two duly signed copies of the termination agreement, attached to this communication, which you are kindly requested to return to us for acceptance.
Kind regards PricewaterhouseCoopers SpA
[Signature] Maria Cristina Landro (Partner)
Fincantieri SpA, with registered office in Trieste, Via Genova 1, Tax Code 00397130584, in the person of Giuseppe Bono, legal representative pro tempore (hereinafter the "Company")
PricewaterhouseCoopers SpA, with registered office in Milan, Via Monte Rosa 91, Tax Code 12979880155, in the person of Maria Cristina Landra, in charge of the statutory audit of the Company for the nine-year period 2013 - 2021, (hereinafter the "Auditor")
By signing this agreement, the Parties expressly state that the Contract shall be considered terminated by mutual consent as of the date of approval of the financial statements by the Shareholders' Meeting, ending on 31 December 2019, and therefore as of the issue of the audit reports on the consolidated financial statements as of 31 December 2019, with the consequent early termination of the engagement for the statutory audit for the years 2013 - 2021; all this, subject to the conditions set out in Article 3 below. The Auditor, subject to the occurrence of the following conditions as per Article 3 below, undertakes to terminate by mutual consent the audit engagements conferred by the subsidiaries of Fincantieri SpA as from the date of approval of the financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2019.
Udine, 10 September 2019
PricewaterhouseCoopers SpA [Signature]
Maria Cristina Landro (Partner)
Fincantieri SpA [Signature]
Date
------------ Signature of the legal representative of Fincantieri SpA
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