Two to zero. Urbano Cairo, publisher in RCS and L 7, collects a sharp defeat against Blackstone: the sentence of the Milan Court of Appeal in the RCS-Blackstone case is clear and unequivocal. Now the president of Turin will have to play away at court of New York that on 25 July it will have to establish territorial jurisdiction over the compensation lawsuit brought by Blackstone against RCS which, in addition to Corriere della Sera, also published the Gazzetta dello Sport for the sum of 600 million dollars: 300 for the non-sale in 2018 of the buildings in via Solferino to Allianz Real Estate plus another 300 for damages requested from Cairo himself, who in any case will not be liable personally because he acted not as a shareholder but as a legal representative of the company.
If the lawsuit were to remain on US soil, the chances that Blackstone's judicial requests would be accepted would increase. Together with the discontent of Banca Intesa, the group's main creditor, and of other shareholders who, in his time, did not like the decision not to make any provision in the financial statements in response to Blackstone's requests, deemed unfounded.
Rcs-Blackstone: the sentence of the Court of Appeal is clear
On the contrary, the Milan Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal "entirely". proposed by RCS in the case against the decision of the Arbitration Chamber of Milan. In May 2021, the arbitration award had not accepted the compensation claims of RCS, which requested the cancellation of the sale, which took place in 2013, to Blackstone for 120 million euros, a price lower than the reasonable one due to the company's financial difficulties. But the final award, on the other hand, had established that Rcs had decided to sell the properties for "management" reasons and not because it was in the position of having to sell "at any cost", thus not recognizing the crime of usury and thus invalidating all compensation claims.
RCS-Blackstone, the ruling rejects eight grounds of appeal
The three RCS lawyers presented eight grounds of appeal against the award of the Arbitration Chamber of Milan to demonstrate how the economic difficulties influenced the decisions of the board of directors favoring the buyer Blackstone. But both the arbitrators and the Court of Appeal rejected the thesis, reaffirming the legitimacy of the operation: it is difficult, moreover, to demonstrate that the board of directors of the time, strong in shareholders of the caliber of Exor and Banca Intesa itself, was in conditions subject to the risk of wear.
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The challenge involves the top lawyers
It is difficult to imagine a clearer verdict: even the costs of the proceedings "are charged to RCS" also "taking into account the value of the dispute, the undoubted complexity of the dispute and the profuse defense commitment". And they will not be insignificant costs given that the dispute involved two teams of princes of the court: Blackstone was assisted by the lawyers Giuseppe Iannaccone, Carlo Pavesi, Francesco Gatti and Anna Melgrati, while for RCS there were the lawyers Sergio Erede, Francesco Mucciarelli, Laura Salvaneschi and Riccardo Bordi.
Small satisfaction: the Court's ruling on Rcs-Blackstone rejected the so-called "incidental appeal" proposed in this case by the Blackstone fund, which asked for the conviction of Rcs for reckless litigation in this case. In fact, the judge, "despite the belief that it was a particularly aggressive judicial initiative" by the publishing group, "does not believe he recognizes the extremes of willful misconduct and gross negligence, necessary to integrate the assumptions of the reference standard ” even if this “does not preclude any 'reflected damages' suffered from being claimed elsewhere”.
However, the last word has not been said, which explains the prudence with which Piazza Affari accepted the sentence: Rcs yields 1,14% to 0,692 euros in a weak market -0,45% at 13 pm pending the decisions of the ECB. Cairo Communication is worse -2,39% despite the shield guaranteed to the publisher.
