The Italian tyremaker has postponed its board meeting to 27 March to address critical governance issues, including a proposal for major shareholder Sinochem to reduce its stake from 37% to below 25% to avoid US market constraints. The move, which could also trigger a government intervention via golden power measures—tools designed to protect national security—underscores the challenges of balancing strategic investment with effective corporate governance
Meeting rescheduled. Pirelli has announced that today’s board meeting has been postponed to Thursday, 27 March 2025, due to organisational matters.
- The meeting was set to approve the 2024 financial statements and address key governance issues, including the influence of its major Chinese shareholders.
- It comes at a time when China is the US top military and cyber threat, according to a report by US intelligence agencies published on Tuesday.
- A new US rule could ban Pirelli’s Cyber Tyre technology for security reasons.
- This threatens the company’s development plans, which make up 40 per cent of its sales in the US.
Governance under scrutiny. A major agenda item is the presence of the Chinese state-owned Sinochem, which currently holds 37% of Pirelli’s capital.
- Media sources report that Pirelli is urging Sinochem to reduce its stake to below 25% to avoid operational constraints in the US market.
- The Italian tyremaker earns around 25% of its revenues in the North American market, which it mostly serves through output from its plants in Mexico, South America, and Europe.
- The group also runs a smaller plant in the US state of Georgia.
- According to the Financial Times, Pirelli would prefer a reduction to at least below 26.4%, with Sinochem potentially needing to cede 12% of the capital.
- Whether Sinochem will agree remains unclear, as previous discussions did not yield a consensus.
Market implications. Should the proposal be implemented, the Italian shareholder Camfin would have the opportunity to acquire an additional 3.5%, raising its stake to 29.9%.
- However, if no agreement is reached, government intervention via golden power measures is possible.
