Relationships with the public administration

Historically, the group’s relationships with the Italian public administration consist of the following main types:

  • supplier of products and services to the public administration;
  • beneficiary of subsidised financing instruments;
  • investee of public entities;
  • generic relationships with the public administration (e.g., tax authorities, agencies, social security institutions, etc.).

The group supplies public administration bodies and institutions (e.g. Ministry of Defence – General Directorate of Air Armaments – Armaereo, the Carabinieri, the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of firefighters, public rescue and civil defence, and the Italian Tax Police) within the scope of contracts, usually of a long-term nature, for the supply of products and maintenance and overhaul services (of aircraft and parts) and engineering services.

Over the years, the group has benefited from public financing assistance in the form of loans and, to a lesser extent, grants, to support research and development and innovation in general, mainly under the following Italian legislation:

  • Law no. 808 of 24 December 1985;
  • Law no. 46 of 17 February 1982;
  • Law no. 296 of 27 December 2006 (and Law no. 244 of 24 December 2007).

Other minor assistance (e.g. Law no. 311 of 30 December 2004) falls within the scope of relationships with the tax authorities in the form of partial tax relief.

Law no. 808/85 also constitutes the main source of financial support for the industrial aerospace sector, with the aim of developing and increasing the competitiveness of industrial aerospace companies.

Given its importance in terms of investing in the development of new products, additional details on financing and the accounting treatment of the related financial statements captions are provided in the Annual Report (see Errore. L’origine riferimento non è stata trovata., Errore. L’origine riferimento non è stata trovata. Errore. L’origine riferimento non è stata trovata.).

The public administration’s non-controlling interests in the group companies consist of the Ascoli Piceno municipal authorities’ investment in the subsidiary SAT S.p.A. (Società Aeroporto del Tronto S.p.A., “SAT”).

SAT is the vehicle for the project to create, through a series of steps, an infrastructure for fixed-wing aircraft landing with maximum weight at take-off of up to 20 tonnes. The infrastructure will be used to develop the group’s industrial activities, while also making it possible to set up a civil protection operating base.

The motivation for the public administration bodies’ investment in the past in SAT, provided for by article 6 of its by-laws, was due to the interest in the construction of infrastructure that could be strategic in an area that mostly falls within objective area 21 and has poor infrastructure levels.

It is in these terms that Resolution no. 215 of 16 February 2005 of the Marche Regional Council falls, setting the guidelines for the creation of regional territorial development agencies, along with the decree of 1 March 2006, whereby the Ministry of Economic Development (previously the Ministry of the Economy and Finance) granted the Ascoli Piceno municipal authorities funds to be used for the investment in SAT.

However, recent spending review policies led to a review of the investment policies of the government and of its subsidiaries in the various areas, including the disposal of investments in companies not active in services classified as essential. In this vein, the Ascoli Piceno municipal authorities recently resolved to commence disposal procedures via an initial assessment aimed at gathering expressions of interest.

  1. Areas with structural difficulties needing socio-economic redevelopment support, in accordance with the qualification under the EU Structural Funds Regulation for 2000-2006. ↩