The board of Risanamento, one of Italy’s biggest property companies, was set to hold an emergency meeting on Monday after a court asked it to respond to a prosecutor’s request that it be declared bankrupt, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The board of Risanamento, one of Italy’s biggest property companies, was set to hold an emergency meeting on Monday after a court asked it to respond to a prosecutor’s request that it be declared bankrupt, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Risanamento, controlled by the property tycoon Luigi Zunino, is struggling to manage some EUR 2.8 bn ($3.9 bn) in net debt. A slump in the Italian property market due to the credit crisis has left its most high-profile project - a huge housing and office complex on the outskirts of Milan - unfinished.
According to Risanamento’s website, the company has a property portfolio of 2.5 mln m2 with a value of EUR 5 bn.
Zunino is one of Italy’s largest property developers and controls more than 70% of Risanamento. The company has several projects in Milan, including an office complex at Sesto San Giovanni and a housing and office development at Santa Giulia for which the architect Norman Foster was commissioned to design apartments.
In June Risanamento unveiled a new strategic plan in a bid to improve its cash resources and to guarantee that the group's financial needs will be met. The plan envisaged the transfer of its flagship Falck project in Milan's Sesto San Giovanni to a fund managed by Castello SGR and controlled by the company's creditor banks. Under the plan, Risanamento would also continue to divest its trading portfolio with part of the assets to be transferred to its creditors, which will also assume the debt linked to the properties.
The plan came in the wake of collapsed talks with Dubai's sovereign wealth fund Limitless regarding the sale of the Falck area.
Risanamento had net debt at the end of March of about EUR 2.8 bn, owed mainly to Italian banks.
