Parmalat's Board of Directors has lapsed following the resignation of three directors, including the managing director Yvon Guerin. The company communicates it in a note, specifying that the next meeting will have to renew the offices. Parmalat explains that the director Antonio Sala – who has a long past at the top of the companies of Lactalis, the majority shareholder of the Emilia-based company – “has resigned from the board with effect from the approval of the 2015 financial statements by the shareholders' meeting shareholders convened for April 29th”.
Sala declared that "in a context in which Parmalat has once again achieved growing results and demonstrated a propensity for demanding industrial choices, he deemed it necessary to resign in the face of the continuous recurrence of disagreements within the board of directors" .
The managing director Yvon Guerin and the director Patrice Gassenbach, also an expression of Lactalis, joined the initiative, in turn resigning as directors and thus determining the forfeiture of the entire Board of Directors with effect from the next shareholders' meeting .
The board of directors approved the budget on Thursday, convening the shareholders' meeting for 29 April which includes, in the extraordinary part, the proposal for some statutory amendments which should go in the direction of a further tightening on governance by the majority shareholder Lactalis. The proposed amendments have not yet been disclosed, but some observers speculate that Lactalis could tighten its grip on governance perhaps by reducing the number of directors and lifting the prohibition on combining the offices of chairman and managing director. There could also be some news on the requirements to be part of the board of statutory auditors and, in this case, the appointment of the small shareholder and alternate auditor Marco Pedretti who should take over from Michele Rutigliano who resigned yesterday could be at risk.
As regards the accounts, Parmalat closes 2015 with a profit of 147,6 million, down 28,1% on the previous year (+30,9% at constant exchange rates, excluding hyperinflation in Venezuela). Revenues amounted to 6,41 billion, with an increase of 15,7% at current exchange rates and 8,8% at constant exchange rates, while the gross operating margin was equal to 444,5 million with a positive change by 1,1% at current exchange rates and by 22,1% at constant exchange rates.
The group proposes the distribution of a coupon of €0,017 per share. For 2016, net revenue growth of approximately 5% and EBITDA growth of 10% at constant exchange rates is forecast, considering pro forma 2015 comparative data for the new acquisitions and excluding the Venezuelan subsidiary.
