A former Procter & Gamble executive has replaced Alberto Galassi as the executive director and CEO of the Ferretti Group. Stassi Anastassov received the majority vote yesterday in an ongoing shareholder dispute, replacing Alberto Galassi, in place since 2014.
During the same vote at the Ferretti Group’s annual meeting, Tan Ning was named chairman of the board. In a press statement, Ning thanked Galassi “for work carried out during his mandate in the past 12 years.” Additionally, Ning says, “The new Board of Directors represents continuity, stability, and growth. It leverages a long-term industrial vision aimed at enhancing the Group and its brands, as well as maintaining the manufacturing presence in Italy and the global commercial network, in line with the path undertaken since 2012.”
That year was when the Chinese conglomerate Weichai Group acquired the majority stake in the Ferretti Group. It continues to be Ferretti’s largest investor, currently holding 39.5 percent. The next-largest shareholder is KKCG Maritime, an investment company headquartered in Switzerland, with about 23 percent. KKCG Maritime became a Ferretti Group investor in 2023, initially taking just a five-percent stake. In January of this year, it revealed plans for a partial tender offer, intending to increase its holdings to 29.9 percent from 14.5 percent. The company additionally wished to ensure its proposed board of directors were elected during this month’s annual meeting.
The weeks leading up to the annual meeting have seen KKCG Maritime and Weichai Group in a growing public battle. They disagree on the Group’s governance and strategies. This included the proposed share-buyback plan, which Weichai rejected in April. Additionally, KKCG Maritime wished to keep Alberto Galassi as CEO but replace Weichai executives in board roles. Furthermore, it wanted, and continues to push for, more acquisitions. The board of directors’ slate from Weichai Group, however, included Stassi Anastassov to replace Galassi (below). During the vote yesterday, 52 percent of shareholders chose its slate.
Anastassov has spent most of his career with manufacturing-oriented firms. Most notably, he spent 30 years with Procter & Gamble in various roles, including marketing and C-suite positions. The period included four years as president and global CEO for Duracell. More recently, he’s been an advisor and board member for a few Chinese companies, including household-appliance and battery manufacturers, plus a French-based technology company.
KKCG Maritime intends to contest the board vote with Italian authorities. The Ferretti Group is a publicly traded company on the Italian and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
Adding to the turmoil, on May 13, the day before Anastassov received the majority of votes, two non-executive board members resigned. Pierro Ferrari and Stefano Domenicali previously had voiced support for KKCG Maritime’s partial tender offer. Ferrari was the honorary chairman and the head of the Group’s Strategic Committee, the latter having an impact on every yacht’s design. Ferrari further held positions on other committees and became an investor in 2016. Following the rejected tender offer, he sold his five-percent stake to KKCG Maritime. Domenicali held several committee positions as well.
In a separate press release, the Ferretti Group quoted the resignation letters from Ferrari and Domenicali. Both express strong dissatisfaction with recent developments. Ferrari resigned over “my frustration and disappointment for what witnessed in past weeks.” He lays blame with unnamed parties within the company. They “seem to have adopted a strategy aimed at impeding such substantive discussion and vote.” Ferrari says they further display “some sort of arrogance” in obstructing a neutral discussion on the tender offer. Domenicali’s resignation letter, meanwhile, blames a lack of “the highest standard of integrity and transparency.” “What I witnessed in the past weeks conflicts with the above principles and sounds in evident contrast with my perception of what Ferretti should be,” he explains.
The Ferretti Group is the parent company of seven yacht brands, six of which have a footprint in the superyacht sector. Namely, they are CRN, Custom Line, Ferretti Yachts, Pershing, Riva, and Wally.
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