For the fifth year, on 13 April 2015, Etica Sgr voted at the general shareholder’s meeting of Piaggio, an Italian motorcycle manufacturer which operates in the industry of scooters, motorcycles and light commercial vehicles under various brands including Piaggio, Vespa, Moto Guzzi and Ape.
This year Etica Sgr once again attended at the shareholders’ meeting to call management’s attention to some aspects linked to corporate sustainability.
Despite appreciating the Company’s return to profits, Etica Sgr abstained from the first item on the agenda, considering the percentage of profits distributed to the shareholders not to be in line with a solid and long-term investment policy. It also abstained in relation to the request for authorisation to purchase and dispose of treasury shares, with respect to which it would have been preferable to have further details on the business goals and strategies that Piaggio intends to pursue and the only item of the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting relating to the cancellation of the totality of treasury shares, due to the absence of clear and detailed information regarding that request. Etica Sgr also voted against the remuneration report since the absence of clear, detailed and transparent information regarding the methods of paying the variable components of the remunerations was assessed negatively. Etica Sgr supported, along with the other institutional investors and members of Assogestioni, a minority list of candidates for the Board of Directors and one for the Board of Auditors.
In its speech at the shareholders’ meeting, Etica Sgr requested updates in relation to the employment situation of Piaggio’s Italian plants and it welcomed the incorporation of the Climate Change questionnaire promoted by the Carbon Disclosure Project, as had been requested by Etica itself during the last shareholders’ meeting. In that regard, there was a call for a further effort, responding also to the questionnaire regarding the use of water resources. Finally, Etica Sgr asked the Company to pay increasing attention to the management and assessment of its suppliers.
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