Written by Giuseppe Fonte and Giulio Piovaccari
ROME/MILAN (Reuters) – Ferrari has held talks with the Italian government over amendments to the Rome Capital Markets Bill that would help move the luxury sports car maker’s registered office back to Italy from the Netherlands, two people said. told Reuters on Friday.
The bill, expected to be approved by Congress in February, would allow publicly traded companies to issue stock that increases the influence of long-time investors.
Ferrari will retain enhanced voting rights held under Dutch law by the Agnelli family, which owns Exor, its largest shareholder, if the automaker moves its headquarters, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. He said that he promoted a special system that would allow for this. The head office is in Italy.
Ferrari declined to comment.
Ferrari, one of Italy’s most famous brands, moved its registered office to the Netherlands in 2015. The automaker was then spun off from its former parent company Fiat Chrysler and went public separately in early 2016.
The company has always had its financial base in Italy, with Milan as its main stock market.
Ferrari is just one of a number of large Italian groups that have been set up in the Netherlands over the years to benefit from the country’s preferential royalty share laws, which help major shareholders maintain firm control over companies.
They include Exor itself, the Berlusconi family’s Mediaset, Campari, and brake manufacturer Brembo, which is expected to complete the process in April.
The Italian Ministry of Finance, which announced the bill last year, said it aims to encourage business owners to go public without worrying about losing control of their companies, and the enhanced voting rights will help companies planning initial public offerings. proposed that it would apply only to companies that are
However, the Cabinet Office and the ruling party have opted for a more aggressive approach, extending the possibility to already listed companies to issue shares with up to 10 times more voting rights through a so-called “royalty share scheme”. did.
Under current regulations regarding Italian royalty shares, investors who hold the shares for at least 24 months are entitled to double their voting rights. As part of the new legislation, after an initial 24-month period, voting rights can be further increased to up to 10 per share over a series of 12-month intervals.
The bill also allows investors who held shares while the company was legally headquartered abroad to count the full period required to access enhanced voting rights in Italy. It is possible to include a period.
The provision will allow shareholders of Ferrari and other companies to immediately rely on enhanced voting rights if they decide to move their operations to Italy.
Exor owns 24.4% of Ferrari shares, giving it more than 36% of the company’s voting rights.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, Giulio Piovaccari in Milan; Additional reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Emelia Sittore Matalise)