Team size: about 40 worldwide   

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?  

I always think that the work around technical aspects come first. We (and our teams) really need to grasp the technical essence of any given (material) issues, to be then able to distill it/water it down as necessary, into something which is palatable for the business, our peers and stakeholders. So, the general approach stays the same, I think – what changes is how fast the scenarios change, how quickly we have to switch from one matter/issue/emergency to another, how proactive we need to be, and how conscious of resources. 

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?  

My corporate legal team and I have been involved in a very challenging and material change to our voting mechanism (by-laws), enabling an enhancement of our loyalty shares structure. This is a core change (and potentially a game-changer) for any listed entity, it kept us busy for months and required several meetings of the board and also an extraordinary shareholders meeting. Under Italian law, similar changes trigger the withdrawal right for any shareholders that did not vote in favor of the relevant resolution, thus potentially exposing the company to a substantial risk of a large cash-out. Working closely with our stakeholders, investors and obviously our colleagues in the Finance and IR depts we were able to keep the withdrawals to the bare minimum, resulting in zero-euro cash-out.  

What do you see as the major legal challenges for businesses in Italy over the next five years, and how are you preparing to address them?   

We expect a spike in compliance oversight and scrutiny across the board from all relevant public authorities. For instance, the Italian market in general is witnessing an increase in the focus of the Italian Antitrust Authority. At Amplifon we already have solid compliance programmes in place, but we will certainly need to further reinforce them, including rolling out a new training campaign, and new checks coupled with a proprietary IT tool we have designed and implemented (enabling a holistic compliance view and remote digital audits of our shops).