YES (WITH RESERVE ON THE PRICE) OF THE BOD OF FONSAI TO UNIPOL. LIGRESTI SUGGESTED FOR INTERMEDIATION. SEIZURED SHARES
At the end of a meeting that lasted over six hours, Fonsai's board "positively assessed the feasibility of the integration with Unipol". But it is a yes with reservations: for the purposes of the exchange, according to the note issued late in the evening, the proposal of the Bologna-based company "does not coincide with the assessments of the advisors" Citigroup (consultant to the committee of independent directors) and Goldman Sachs ( mandated by the board). But "in the specific corporate and market context, the Bolognese proposal nonetheless allows us to continue in-depth analysis of the operation". Therefore, "also in accordance with the orientation of the independents", it is necessary to start a discussion with Unipol to identify a "common opinion on the economic values and for the purposes of the share swap". Basically, this morning or at the latest tomorrow Emanuele Erbetta on behalf of Fonsai and Carlo Cimbri on behalf of Unipol will meet to identify an agreement before the Fonsai shareholders' meeting on 24 April. In the proposal delivered on Monday, Unipol claimed at least 66,7% of the maxi-insurance pole. For Fonsai's consultants, on the contrary, the weight of the Cimbri group should be between 55% and 60%. A distance that cannot be bridged, especially if one takes into account the opinion of the creditor Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of Unicredit, who also yesterday reiterated that "Unipol's is the only concrete proposal that it is", thus discarding Sator's project a priori and palladium. “We are waiting to see what the next steps are, the resolutions that will be taken” Matteo Arpe replied remotely. “We have made an offer that is currently binding, valid until April 30th, which also improves in quantitative terms. – he explained – Binds Premafin 450 million euros as part of the rescue of Fonsai”.
But the financial confrontation, at this point, is only one of the chapters, probably the least bloody of the game. Torpedoes are raining from all sides on the fate of Ligresti and the group, in fact on the future of polo. The heaviest blow came from the Milan Public Prosecutor who seized 20% of Premafin, the holding company that controls Fonsai, in the hands of The Heritage and EverGreen off-shore trusts and placed Salvatore Ligresti under investigation for insider trading in competition with Giancarlo De Filippo , Monaco-based businessman and longtime acquaintance of the Sicilian property developer. The prosecutor Luigi Orsi, owner of the investigations into the Ligresti group, believes that the two trusts have manipulated the market by supporting the prices of the Premafin share. Hypothesis endorsed by Consob investigations which had reported to the prosecutor the repeated purchases between November 2009 and September 2010 by the two funds, for the commission and for the judiciary attributable to Salvatore Ligresti. Purchases dictated, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, by the need to inflate the prices of the Premafin stock, given by the Ligresti as a pledge to the banks. Orsi's move, which will prevent the funds from voting in the shareholders' meeting, comes two days after the bankruptcy filing for Sinergia (which holds another 20% of Premafin) and Imco, the two holding companies of the Sicilian engineer, already finished in register of suspects for obstructing Consob's supervisory activity.
Meanwhile, yesterday evening the board of statutory auditors, at the request of Consob, announced that according to the Commission's opinion, the commitment undertaken by Unipol not to propose and vote on liability actions against the directors and statutory auditors of the companies involved in the merger "takes the form of a pact shareholder". Furthermore, again at the request of Consob, some additions have been made in view of the next shareholders' meeting. Thus it becomes known that the former CEO Fausto Marchionni was paid 10 million euros for "the specific obligation of confidentiality". More than double the amount spent to sponsor Jonella Ligresti's thoroughbred Laità, the company from Toulon.
Last gem: in response to Sator's complaint, the board of statutory auditors let it be known that it had already reported to the board "the possibility that the transaction with Unipol could cause financial damage for Fonsai".
