Non price-sensitive communications

Trieste, March 9, 2023 – Starting today, Italian companies in the shipbuilding supply chain have an added advantage based on their sustainability profile. Fincantieri has announced the launch of an innovative solution for promoting awareness and improving the ESG profile of its Italian suppliers, with the participation of Crédit Agricole Eurofactor, Ifitalia (BNP Paribas Group), SACE FCT, a SACE Group company specialized in factoring services, and UniCredit as funders.

The solution aims to incentivize Fincantieri’s suppliers to improve their environmental and social impact, demonstrating on one hand the shipbuilding group’s willingness to foster corporate responsibility, and on the other hand the financial institutions’ commitment to supporting strategic clients in their projects to stimulate and enhance their path of sustainability.

Under this agreement, the discount rate applied to the suppliers’ invoices will also depend on the suppliers’ ESG rating as defined by a specialised third-party consultant. Suppliers with better ESG performance will therefore be able to benefit from a better rating, accessing more advantageous financing terms. Specifically, the supplier will access a dedicated platform and fill out a questionnaire with which it will be rated with respect to three pillars: Environmental sustainability, Social sustainability, and sustainability of the processes of Governance. The score will range from A (the highest) to E; moreover, the company will receive guidance on how to improve its performance as well as check its ranking against the industry average. Scoring on the platform will also reward constancy, as it will be updated annually, allowing a mid- to long-term relationship to be built with suppliers in order to further enhance improvements year after year.

Fincantieri, with the support of leading Italian banking institutions, innovatively employs the reverse factoring tool, using it not only as a purely financial support channel but also as a vehicle for raising awareness among its industrial partners toward a common path of sustainable growth.