Tisg, the chairman and two directors leave. Share price falls
At the close of the stock exchange it was -8.39%. Strong disagreements between CEO Costantino and resigning board members Menchelli and Carniani
Stormy waters for The Italian Sea Group: the board of directors split, leaving the founder and CEO, Giovanni Costantino, alone at the helm. On the stock market, the share plummets to EUR 2.02, marking -8.39%. Looking at the graphs, one can see that the yield has marked -50.25% since the beginning of the year and -72.9% in the last 12 months. But the most complicated moment began 10 days ago, with the board meeting on 18 February: on the table, additional costs to be covered quickly and the need to strengthen the company's financial structure. The solution found is that of a shareholder loan.
The Committee for Transactions with Related Parties gave its approval and a EUR 25 million loan was signed, commission-free and interest-free, through Gch, which is headed by Costantino himself, Managing Director and major shareholder with 53.6% of Tisg (the others are Alychlo, the family office of Belgian billionaire Marc Coucke, with 11.40% and Giorgio Armani, with 4.99%).
The extra budgets are not quantified and the impact on cash and operating margins is not disclosed, but the board of directors does say that it intends to launch an 'independent and in-depth' audit of operations and orders, entrusted to a leading auditing firm (which it does not name) and to 'initiate a dialogue with the banks'. On the stock exchange the first shock, it leaves on the Euronext Star Milan over 35% and its value goes from 4.16 euro to 2.6 euro.
In the following days the descent continued and today a thud, after the resignation of chairman Filippo Menchelli and vice-chairman Marco Carniani. In the evening a third director (and member of the Committee for Related Party Transactions) resigned: Laura Angela Tadini. Speaking of a 'phase of difficulty' for the company, she explains that the reason for her resignation is contrasts with Costantino. "A divergence of views has emerged between Tadini and the rest of the board of directors regarding the operating methods considered most appropriate for managing the situation," the company says, while Menchelli and Carniani declare that they "fully dispute what was reported by the managing director at the board meeting of 18 February and the information on the financial situation".
They want to 'independently verify the correct management of the company in recent years, by the CEO, reserving the right to disclose the relevant findings at the end of this activity' and Carniani, who was the manager in charge of drawing up the company's accounting documents, states that it is 'resignation for just cause'. The company, for its part, 'firmly disputes the reasons put forward by the resigning directors, considering them to be completely unfounded and untrue'.
