The new shareholder structure brought about the definition of an organisational structure that could respond to the communications needs of stakeholders in a more integrated manner. To this end, we combined the activities of external communication, relationships with institutions and sustainability under the same department.
This new organisational framework was defined during the second half of 2009. With it, we will respond to the broader range of institutional contacts using a more proactive and synergic model that fits the new business reality.
During the year, we continued to develop the website on the base of the communications needs of the Company towards its stakeholders. In particular, by approaching the shippers’ needs more effectively and more rationally, we developed and activated a new portal for managing bookings and transactions of capacities. Regarding external communication, we concluded, with its third edition, the project about Italian landscape and realised the press and online information campaign about the share capital increase operation.
Share capital increase campaign
Concerning the share capital increase operation to acquire Italgas and Stogit, we realized an informational-advertising campaign that was transparent and in line with the rules of the Italian Stock Exchange, aimed at Snam Rete Gas shareholders and, especially, the retail market. For this purpose we launched an informational campaign in the principal national dailies and their websites. The company website was also a crucial means for publishing the operation and for making information available to investors. We published exhaustively all the information needed to subscribe to the new shares and a toll-free telephone number for private investors to obtain information. The operation closed with all shares offered being subscribed. In particular, the campaign contributed to high subscription levels, not only by institutional investors, but also by individuals, that is, retail shareholders.
The Italian landscape
We have promoted the “Italian Landscape” project to emphasize areas crossed by the pipeline network. This is an artistic and cultural project, assigned to three major photographers, who have depicted the frontiers of methane importation in their images. In 2009, the initiative marked its third edition. After Sicily (the arrival point for gas from North Africa) and the Po Valley (strategic junction of the pipeline network), the alpine range has played the starring role in this new photographic journey. Giorgia Fiorio, an internationally renowned photographer, has depicted the snow-covered peaks, glaciers and valleys crossed by pipelines that supply our cities with gas, photographing the frontier where the imports arrive from distant gas fields in Russia and Northern Europe. It was an intense and impassioned work, collected in the book, “Sotto il Cielo” (Below the Sky), from which the 2010 calendar was prepared.
With more than 60,000 copies in print, the calendar was sent as a gift to the local bodies with which we work and to all who asked for a copy through the website.
The calendar also makes it possible to provide contact details for emergency services on the pipeline network as well as points of contact for the Districts and Peripheral Sites distributed throughout the country. It also illustrates the signage used to indicate areas crossed by the pipeline network.
