Difficult day on the stock exchange for RCS and Cairo Communication after the defeat suffered in the arbitration against the American fund Blackstone over the sale of the historic headquarters of the Corriere della Sera in Via Solferino in Milan.
In mid-morning the title Rcs Media Group it lost 7,3%, falling to 0,737 euro per share after having reached a low of 0,69 euro and against a FTSE All Share up by half a percentage point. Stocks are even worse Cairo communication, which lose 7,7% to 1,882 euros, after having marked an intraday low of 1,81 euros.
As mentioned, what caused the downpour of sales on the two titles was the news, which arrived on Friday evening with the markets closed, relating to theoutcome of the award between RCS and Blackstone on the sale of the real estate complex in Via Solferino in Milan to the US fund, which took place in 2013.
Secondo Urban Cairo, which acquired control of Rcs after the operation, the sale of the historic headquarters of Corriere della Sera would have damaged the publishing group. Not only that, according to the entrepreneur, Blackstone would have behaved "usurer", paying too low a price (120 million euros) for the property. However, the Arbitration Tribunal deemed the transaction to be correct, not awarding any compensation to RCS.
“Although in a context not without some ambiguities and uncertainties, did not emerge sufficiently unambiguous to prove that, when the contract in question was stipulated, Rcs was in a situation of economic or financial difficulty such as to significantly affect its ability to self-determinate and, therefore, to integrate the requirement necessary to configure the crime of usury”, reads the device.
Following the decision of the Milanese arbitration chamber, Cairo also risks that the legal case brought by Blackstone in New York will cost it up to 300 million euros: the proceedings, which had been suspended pending the arbitration award, can now restart.
