Shares in Italy's Azimut plunge after supervisor flags governance shortfalls (updated)
13/11/2025 15:55
Updates share price in paragraph 1 and 4, adds chairman comments in paragraphs 8-10 MILAN, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Azimut AZMT.MI shares dropped as much as 17% on Thursday after the Italian asset manager said an inspection by the Bank of Italy had found "significant governance and organisational shortcomings" at one of its units. The shortcomings have emerged at the Azimut Capital Management SGR unit, Azimut said in a statement issued overnight at the behest of markets watchdog Consob to clarify previous statements. The Bank of Italy has ordered Azimut to quickly remedy the situation and put in place an organisational structure adequate to the complexity of the group's operations, Azimut said. By 1542 GMT shares in Azimut were down 10%, compared to a 0.1% rise in Italy's blue-chip index .FTMIB. BLOCK ON ANY EXTRAORDINARY TRANSACTIONS Azimut operates in 18 countries with 73 subsidiaries under the Milan-based holding company Azimut Holding SpA, its 2024 financial statement showed. Pending the remediation measures, which the Bank of Italy will assess to ensure the shortfalls have been addressed, Azimut Capital Management SGR cannot take part in any extraordinary transactions, the company said. Azimut has been planning to spin off a chunk of its network of financial advisers and acquire a banking licence to set up a digital bank dubbed TNB. CHAIRMAN SAYS MARKETS BEHAVING 'IRRATIONALLY' Founder and Chairman Pietro Giuliani said in a statement the markets were behaving "irrationally" and he would invest "several million euros" to buy Azimut shares in the coming days. He ruled out any changes to the group's capital distribution policy as Azimut is not subject to banking supervision, and said that there was no reason to think the TNB project was in doubt. "Our preference is to receive the license in Italy within reasonable timeframes. However, should this not be possible, we would pursue other jurisdictions, such as Switzerland," he said. Azimut had said earlier that fixing the organisational issues raised by the Bank of Italy was not in itself a guarantee of gaining supervisory approval for the project. (Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Giselda Vagnoni and Conor Humphries) ((valentina.za@thomsonreuters.com; +39 02 6612 9526;))