Italian public companies under spotlight
Disclosure of related party links and guidelines for audit committees at Italian public companies remains lacking, according to new research.
Link: Italy rebuilds from the ruins of Parmalat
The latest governance report by Assonime, the association for Italy’s limited liability companies, showed that where companies have an audit committee, members are not always independent.
But the research pointed out that the transparency at public companies had improved significantly in recent years.
Following the discovery of the financial scandal at one of Italy’s leading public companies, Parmalat, at the beginning of this year, Italian companies are keen to prove to the outside world their ability to comply with governance rules.
The report only examines whether rules and procedures are disclosed to investors and doesn’t look at the effectiveness of controls.