Citylife goes ahead with the restructuring of its shareholding and announces the news to the banks that could finance the development project in the Fiera area in Milan. One of the most important real estate redevelopments in Italy, which includes important names in international architecture: Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki and Daniel Libeskind.
Today the project has the Generali insurance group as its main shareholder with 67% of the shares, supported by Allianz (with the remaining 33%). But according to rumors Generali should rise to 100% of the shareholding structure while Allianz would proceed towards the exit.
One of the nodes of the Milanese real estate project remains that of bank loans with the pool formed by EuroHypo, Banca Imi, Bpm, Credit Agricole, Mediobanca and Unicredit. The institutes have 100% of Citylife in pledge. Soon 353 million of the 761 million of debt (out of 1,6 billion of credit lines) will expire and the company has started discussions for the rescheduling.
The Citylife plan started at the end of 2005, when it received the green light from the Municipality. The project aimed at the redevelopment of an area of over 365 square meters within the historic Fiera district in Milan. A consortium formed by the major Italian insurers had been awarded the business, making over half a billion euros available. Among the main shareholders at that time were the German group Allianz, Generali and Immobiliare Milano Assicurazioni owned by Salvatore Ligresti's Fonsai Group, as well as Lamaro owned by the Toti family.
Today, 8 years later, only Generali and Allianz are the partners in that project and the imminent corporate restructuring, which could be ratified by the respective boards of directors, could therefore further mix the cards.
