Pursuant to Article 154 ter of Italy's Consolidated Law on Finance (D.lgs. 58/98), introduced by the so-called Transparency Decree (Legislative Decree no. 195 of November 6, 2007), Article 10 of the Company By – laws provides that the Ordinary Shareholders' Meeting for approval of year-end financial statements must be held within 120 days after the end of the company's fiscal year. Shareholders' meetings are also held whenever the Board deems it necessary or when so required by law.
 
As regards the right of attendance, on September 27, 2004, the Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting passed a resolution aligning our Articles of Association with the new rules established by Article 2370 of the Italian Civil Code, respecting investors' interest in being freely able to dispose of the securities owned, whilst preventing participation by parties not legitimated to attend shareholders' meetings. Article 8 of the Articles of Association thus envisages that shareholders with voting rights, possessing appropriate certification, and for whom the Company has received notification from the intermediary within the two days prior to the date of individual meetings, can attend shareholders' meetings.
The Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting mentioned above also passed a resolution amending the statutory article concerning convocation, thus envisaging the possibility of the meeting notice being published in the Italian daily newspaper "Il Sole 24 Ore", as well as in the Official Italian Gazette (Gazzetta Ufficiale). (The choice to indicate "Il Sole 24 Ore" as the newspaper in which to publish notices of convocation is in line with the Company's established use of this newspaper as an information medium already known to shareholders).