One is coming class action against Seat Pagine Gialle. A hundred small shareholders promote it. The initiative was triggered by a leverage buyout, or acquisition through debt, which would have damaged the minority shareholders.
Senator Pdl Stefano announced the class action De Lillo. who presented an interpellation to the ministers of the Economy, Economic Development and Justice.
The parliamentarian denounces that small savers "have been expropriated of their share ownership, also losing their savings, with figures starting from 10 up to 50 euros".
At the moment a judicial document has been presented to the courts of Rome, Turin and Milan.
The objective is "compensation for the loss of value of the security". Basically, we want to ascertain “if there have been checks in the various transfers of ownership of Seat Pagine Gialle. Because there has been a leveraged buyout which over the years has led the value of a share to drop from 7 euro to 0,04 euro cents”.
An operation, underlines De Lillo, “which saw around 300 shareholders involved in heavy losses. Therefore it must be verified whether the acquisition of the company by foreign funds followed the correct procedures”.
The question is certainly quite complex: in fact – it is pointed out – this is the first case of leveraged buyout that is brought to the attention of Italian politics and justice.
In the interpellation, De Lillo asked the heads of the various departments if they were aware that there was also "a project to restructure the company's unsatisfied debts, for an amount of approximately 3 billion euros, which involves the rotation of owner control, for approximately 90 per cent of the capital, of the main bondholder, an equally anonymous fund under Luxembourg law under the name 'Lighthouse'.
