AGM Information • Feb 22, 2019
AGM Information
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FINCANTIERI S.p.A.
Registered office Via Genova No. 1, Trieste Share capital €862,980,725.70 - fully paid up VAT No. 00629440322 Tax code and Venezia Giulia Businesses Registry No. 00397130584 Trieste Economic and Administrative Index No. 89063
Explanatory Report drafted pursuant to Article 125-ter of Legislative Decree No. 58 dated 24 February 1998
Dear Shareholders,
The three-year appointment of the Board of Directors currently in office will expire on the occasion of the Shareholders' Meeting called to approve the 2018 financial statements.
You are therefore asked to resolve on (i) the number of members of the Board of Directors; (ii) the term of the Board of Directors' office; (iii) the appointment of the Board of Directors' members; (iv) the appointment of the Chairman of the Board of Directors; (v) the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors.
Pursuant to Article 19.1 of the Company's By-laws, the Company is managed by a Board of Directors comprising seven or more members up to a maximum of thirteen. The number of members is decided upon from time to time by the Shareholders' Meeting, subject to the limits referred to above. (Article 19.2 of the Company's By-laws).
The outgoing Board of Directors has abstained from submitting specific proposals on this matter and therefore asks the Shareholders' Meeting to establish – subject to the limits specified by the Company's By-laws – the number of members of the Board of Directors on the basis of the proposals that the shareholders are entitled to submit, including at the Shareholders' Meeting itself.
Pursuant to Article 19.10 of the Company's By-laws, the directors remain in office for three financial years, and their appointment expires on the date of the Shareholders' Meeting called to approve the financial statements in relation to their last financial year in office.
The outgoing Board of Directors has abstained from submitting specific proposals on this matter and therefore asks the Shareholders' Meeting to establish - subject to the limits specified by the Company's By-laws - the term of office of the Board of Directors on the basis of the proposals that the shareholders are entitled to submit, including at the Shareholders' Meeting itself.
The Company's Board of Directors is appointed in accordance with Article 19 of the Company's By-laws, to which express reference is made to the extent that the same is not set out below.
The Directors are appointed by means of the slate voting system. Slates may be submitted by Shareholders who, either alone or together with other Shareholders, represent at least 1% of the share capital. Each Shareholder may submit, or jointly submit with others, one slate only. Those with voting rights shall vote for one slate only.
Each candidate may appear on one slate only, and shall otherwise be ineligible.
Each slate must include at least two candidates that meet the requirements of independence established by law (i.e. the requirements of independence that the Internal Auditors of listed companies are subject to pursuant to Article 148, paragraph 3 of Legislative Decree No. 58/1998); these candidates must be specifically identified on the slate and one of them must occupy top position.
In order to establish the advisory committees recommended by the Corporate Governance Code, slates should include an adequate number of candidates that meet the requirements of independence referred to in Article 3.C.1 of the same.
In order to ensure compliance with the legislative provisions on gender balance, and, therefore, so that at least one third of the new Board of Directors comprises members of the gender represented to the lesser extent (rounding up to the next whole number in the event of a fraction), the slates are to be drawn up in accordance with the criteria set out in the notice calling the Shareholders' Meeting, as set out below:
Members of the Board of Directors must meet (i) the professional qualifications set forth by Article 19.5 of the Company's By-laws; (ii) the integrity requirements set forth by Articles 147-quinquies of Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February 1998 (the "Italian Consolidated Financial Law"), which recalls the integrity requirements established by Article 148, paragraph 4 of the Italian Consolidated Financial Law and Article 19.6 of the Company's By-laws for statutory auditors of companies with shares listed in the Stock Exchange (reference is currently made to Article 2 of the Decree of the Ministry of Justice No. 162 of 30 March 2000) and by Article 19.6 of the Company's By-laws.
In addition, the members of the Board of Directors must not be in the situations making them unfit or incompatible to act as Directors provided for by the mentioned Article 19.6 and Article 19.4 of the Company's By-laws.
In addition to the above, please note that, in accordance with the recommendations set out in Article 1.C.3 of the Corporate Governance Code, the Company's Board of Directors has expressed its view on the maximum number of positions as Director or Statutory Auditor that the members of the Board of Directors of Fincantieri can hold in other companies of significant size that is considered compatible with proper performance of the appointment as Director of the Company. This view can be found on the Company's website at www.fincantieri.com in the section entitled 'Ethics & Governance - Board of Directors - Board's stance on the maximum number of directors'.
Pursuant to Article 147-ter of the Italian Consolidated Financial Law, the slates of candidates must be lodged at least twenty-five days before the date of the Shareholders' Meeting (i.e. by 11 March 2019) and will be published within the deadline established by the legislation in force (i.e. by 15 March 2019).
Slates may be lodged as follows:
Ownership of the minimum equity interest required in order to submit the slates, at the percentage set out above, is established on the basis of the shares registered to the Shareholder on the date on which the slates are lodged with the Company. The relevant certification can, however, also be produced after the slate has been lodged, on condition that it is produced at least twenty-one days before the date of the Shareholders' Meeting (i.e. by 15 March 2019), by means of a communication issued by an authorised intermediary pursuant to the legislation in force.
Slates lodged must be accompanied by the documentation and information required by the Company's By-laws and the legislation in force. On this point, it should be noted that information must be provided along with the slates that identifies the Shareholders submitting the slates and the overall percentage equity interest held. Also to be lodged along with the slates are the candidates CV's and declarations by the individual candidates that they accept their candidature and, on their own responsibility, certify the absence of any grounds for ineligibility or incompatibility and that they meet the requirements established by the Company's By-laws and by the legislation in force in relation to the office of Director of the Company;
Where candidates who, on the slate, are referred to as being independent pursuant to law are concerned, declarations must also be lodged in which these candidates certify, on their own responsibility, that they meet the requirements of independence established by law. It should be noted that the Corporate Governance Code recommends that the slates of candidates for the office of Director also be accompanied by a statement, if appropriate, that the candidates qualify as independent pursuant to Article 3 of the said Corporate Governance Code.
Please also note that, by way of Communication No. DEM/9017893 dated 26 February 2009, Consob [the Italian securities market authority] recommends that Shareholders submitting a minority slate for the appointment of the Board of Directors also lodge, together with the slate, a declaration "certifying the absence of relationships, including of an indirect nature, as referred to in Article 147-ter, paragraph 3, of Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February 1998 and Article 144-quinquies of Consob Resolution No. 11971
of 14 May 1999, with shareholders who hold, either individually or jointly, a controlling or relative majority interest, where identifiable on the basis of the communications of significant shareholdings referred to in Article 120 of Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February 1998 or the publication of shareholder agreements pursuant to Article 122 of the said decree", specifying any connections that in fact exist, where significant, with the said controlling or relative majority Shareholders, as well as the reasons on the basis of which said connections are considered not to amount to existence of the relationships referred to.
On this point, on the basis of (i) the communications referred to in Article 120 of the Italian Consolidated Financial Law and (ii) the Shareholders register, the controlling Shareholder of Fincantieri, with a 71.636% holding in the share capital, is Fintecna S.p.A., which is in turn a subsidiary of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti S.p.A.
Pursuant to Article 19.9 of the Company's By-laws, the procedure for electing the directors is as set out below:
below. In the event that candidates from different lists have obtained the same quotient, the candidate from the list from which the largest number of Directors is drawn will be replaced, or, in the event of an equal number of elected Directors, the candidate drawn from the list that has obtained the lowest number of votes will be replaced, or, in the event of an equal number of votes, the candidate that has obtained the fewest votes from the Shareholders' Meeting in a special vote among all of the candidates with the same quotient coming from slates which have elected the same number of Directors and which have obtained the same number of votes will be replaced, according to the procedure set out in letter e) below;
On the basis of the above, the Shareholders are asked to vote at the Shareholders' Meeting for one of the slates of candidates for the position of director on the Board of Directors that will be drawn up, lodged and published in accordance with the provisions referred to above.
Pursuant to Article 20.1 of the Company's By-laws, appointment of the Chairman of the Board of Directors is a task that falls first and foremost to the Shareholders' Meeting. Article 20 in fact states that the Board of Directors can only elect a chairman from amongst its members where the Shareholders' Meeting has not made such an appointment.
The outgoing Board of Directors has abstained from submitting specific proposals on this matter and therefore asks the Shareholders' Meeting to appoint the Chairman of the Board of Directors from amongst the directors elected as a result of the voting procedures in relation to point 3.3 above on the agenda, on the basis of the proposals that the Shareholders are entitled to submit, including at the Shareholders' Meeting itself.
Pursuant to Article 28.1 of the Company's By-laws, members of the Board of Directors are entitled to reimbursement of expenses incurred in the exercise of their office and to payment of fees to be established by the ordinary Shareholders' Meeting, which may also rely on the power pursuant to Article 2389, paragraph 3, of the Civil Code. Once adopted, that resolution is also valid for the purposes of subsequent financial years until the Shareholders' Meeting decides otherwise.
Article 28.2 of the Company's By-laws stipulates that directors' fees for directors with particular duties and responsibilities are instead established by the Board of Directors in compliance with the legislation in force and with any resolutions by the Shareholders' Meeting pursuant to Article 2389, paragraph 3 of the Civil Code as referred to above.
On this point, it should be noted that the fees payable to the current members of the Board of Directors were established by the ordinary Shareholders' Meeting on 19 May 2016, in the following amounts: (i) EUR 40,000 for the Chairman; (ii) EUR 27,000 for the other members.
The outgoing Board of Directors has abstained from submitting specific proposals on this matter and therefore asks the Shareholders' Meeting to establish the fees payable to the directors, on the basis of the proposals that the Shareholders are entitled to submit, including at the Shareholders' Meeting itself.
Trieste, 14 February 2019
For the Board of Directors The Chairman of the Board of Directors Giampiero Massolo
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