MILAN (Reuters) – Italy is checking whether the presence of Sinochem executives on Pirelli’s board is in breach of measures Rome imposed to protect the tyremaker’s autonomy, a senior government official said.
The Italian government can use so-called “golden powers” to shield companies deemed as strategic from foreign influence or takeovers.
Italy last year took steps to curb the influence of China’s state-owned Sinochem, which holds a 37% stake in Pirelli, including a mandatory qualified majority for strategic decisions made by the board.
“If there are prescriptions and non-compliance is verified, the prescriptions are followed by sanctions,” Cabinet Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano said on Friday.
“Rome’s prescriptions require a non-foreign presence in the management of sensitive information. Now the issue is whether this type of caution has been observed,” Mantovano – a close aide to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Milan.
Pirelli said earlier this week that Italy was investigating a possible breach by Sinochem of the government provisions.
Rome’s move comes against a backdrop of rising trade tensions between Beijing and the European Union, which has just imposed new tariffs of up to 45.3% on Chinese-built electric vehicles.
Pirelli’s second largest shareholder, with a 25.7% stake, is Camfin, the vehicle of Italian businessman Marco Tronchetti Provera, who has been in charge of Pirelli since 1992 and now holds the role of executive vice chairman.
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari. Editing by Jane Merriman)
