TATO' IN THE COURT: "WE AT PARMALAT SUPERCORRETTI". THE CHALLENGE STARTS WITH PROXY, AMBER FUND AND PASSERA
“We were supercorrected.” Franco Tatò, dressed as president of Parmalat format Lactalis, does not lose the proverbial grit. Today, together with the board of directors and the entire board of statutory auditors, Tatò appeared before the president of the Parma court Roberto Piscopo to defend Parmalat's purchase of Lactalis USA, a 957 million operation which absorbed almost the entire treasury left by Enrico Bondi.
The court is called to decide on the request for inspection received from the Public Prosecutor's Office on the basis of the article 2409 of the civil code, relating to “serious irregularities in the performance of directors' duties and mayors". None of this, according to Tatò. On the contrary. "The operation - he adds - was managed in an obsessively regular way". Including the valuation of 957 million “the best price that could be paid”. In short, "administrators can make mistakes too but I don't think this is the case".
The match, however, promises to be complex, both on the judicial and political fronts. The Minister of Economic Development, Corrado Passera, took sides against the decision of the Besnier family, the sole shareholder of Lactalis and the majority in Collecchio. "What happened with Parmalat - Passera said recently, before the initiative by the Public Prosecutor's Office - was not a good result: from there they took everything away and left only what they couldn't take away".
A harsh judgement, to which the scar of the "flop" of the attempts by Intesa, at the time led by the minister, to give life to an Italian consortium, favored by the "pitfalls" studied by Giulio Tremonti, then owner of the Economy, is not extraneous. but poor in capital, after the defection of the Ferreros. A burning scar, given the latest developments: not only the intra-group purchase in the USA but also the industrial restructuring with the closure of some plants, compensated but by a massive plan of necessary advertising investments, according to the diagnosis of the French cheese giant, to restore the glaze to the tarnished and "old" image of the group from which "nothing has been nor can it be taken away".
This is not the opinion of the Amber fund (present in the classroom yesterday with the chairman Umberto Mosetti, representative of minorities) or of Gamco Asset Management and Fidelity Worldwide Investment, who have expressed harsh criticisms in letters addressed to the board of directors and to the board of statutory auditors. Or from Consob, which already in August had sent the Parma prosecutor's office a "technical note" on the operation announced on May 22 (but the price was then adjusted upwards from 904 to 957 million). Discipline on related parties in hand, Consob led by Giuseppe Vegas (formerly Giulio Tremonti's deputy) conducted its preliminary investigation activity with the attitude of a watchdog worthy of the best authorities (a attitude not found in other Italian operations) noting "some aspects particularly critical which, it is believed, may be of interest to the judicial authority”, including the conflict of interest of the advisor Mediobanca, given the role played in the financing of the acquisition. Finally, a complaint that set in motion the prosecutors, who took the field to contest the same crime object of the complaint of the Amber fund against the management of the Ligresti in Fonsai.
In short, the clash promises to be vibrant, also for the repercussions it could have on foreign investments in Italy. The next rounds, sorry hearings, have been set for November 27 and 29 when the president Tatò, the rest of the board of directors, starting with Yves Guérin, and the board of statutory auditors will appear in the courtroom. Meanwhile, by the 15th, the parties will have to present their briefs. In the meantime, the Court has decided to appoint, at the company's request and as required by the procedure, Alberto Guiotto as special administrator who will be responsible for representing Parmalat.
