Condotte's management board rejected Attestor Capital's bid to bail out the construction company. The Radiocor Plus agency wrote it, specifying that the managing director Giuseppe Di Giovine did not show up at the meeting of the Mise crisis table. Today Condotte will present the declaration of insolvency to the court of Rome and the request for extraordinary administration to the Ministry of Economic Development.
No information was provided to the unions and the ministry about the reasons for the refusal. In any case, Condotte assessed the reliability of the financial resources offered by Attestor, 50 million of immediate liquidity and another 150 to the counterpart of the arrangement, which in theory should have guaranteed at least a share of business continuity without losing control of the company.
The ball passes into the hands of the Ministry of Development: the concession of the Marzano administration is generally taken for granted, once the requirements have been verified, but the choice of the commissioner is up to the Minister (Luigi Di Maio).
From the filing of the request, the minister - subject to verification of the offices - has 48 hours to appoint the commissioner. During the meeting, the unions hoped that the choice would fall on a man with knowledge and experience in the construction sector, who would try to revive the company and not just act as liquidator.
Not a single euro is left in Condotte's coffers, all the construction sites are at a standstill and there are three to four months of back wages to pay (2.800 employees as of last December 31, including headquarters, subsidiaries, construction sites). The commissioner, once appointed, will have to convince the banks to get back into the game, or alternatively the government will have to find a form of funding (loan) from a public source. There is a fund available to the Mise for the crises of large companies, but a European authorization is needed with a procedure that is not always rapid.
For Condotte employees, once the commissioner has been appointed, it will immediately be possible (based on the Marzano law) to activate the extraordinary redundancy fund. The building unions (Fillea Cgil, Filca Cisl, Feneal Uil) will ask for the absorption of all the subsidiaries and consortiums to extend the Cigs to all.
“The extraordinary administration is not a victory for us – explains Flavia Villani, Fillea – but at least we have more guarantees on social safety nets. Construction is a particular sector, we have tried to explain that the success of the commissioner depends a lot on the choice of a man who knows the sector. We hope that as early as next week we can sit down at the table with the new commissioner to discuss shock absorbers, emergency finance and restarting construction sites".
