The Milan Bankruptcy Court has declared Acciaierie d'Italia spa to be insolvent.
A step that effectively allows the extraordinary administration to be started.
The declaration of insolvency, at the same time, should trigger an investigation with the hypothesis of bankruptcy into the management and accounts of the former Ilva.
In Acciaierie d'Italia spa there is an "absolute absence of cash liquidity" which can compromise the "survival" of the company.
This is what emerges from the provision of the Milan Bankruptcy Court, chaired by Laura De Simone, which today declared the "state of insolvency" of the former Ilva, so that the extraordinary administration can now effectively begin.
A state of "absence of liquidity" not contested, among other things, not even by the company itself.
The judges (college chaired by Laura De Simone) have set the hearing for the assessment of the debt status and the creditors' questions for 19 June.
In the hearing two days ago, before the Bankruptcy Section, the lawyers of Invitalia, public shareholder of AdI spa, and of the Extraordinary Commissioner Giancarlo Quaranta, appointed by the government, reiterated the request for declaration of the state of insolvency to effectively start the extraordinary administration.
While the lawyers of Arcelor Mittal, still the majority private shareholder, had instead requested, as a counter-move, the so-called "blank" agreement for the entire group, which includes Acciaierie d'Italia spa, AdI Energia srl, AdI Servizi Marittimi srl and AdI Tubiforma srl.
The latter requests were rejected.
Meanwhile, the deputy prosecutor Laura Pedio, who also took part in one of Tuesday's hearings, has opened a file, currently without any hypothesis of crime or suspects, on the case of the former Ilva.
The investigations are also entrusted to prosecutor Pasquale Addesso.
The fact-finding file should soon become, with the declaration of insolvency and as expected in these cases, an investigation with the hypothesis of a bankruptcy crime.
Formerly Ilva, the Mef can pay funds of up to 320 million
With the declaration of insolvency and the start of the extraordinary administration procedure, Acciaierie d'Italia, i.e. the former Ilva, may be granted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance "one or more onerous loans" for a maximum of 5 years up to an amount of 320 million euros for 2024. These are the effects of both the provision of the Bankruptcy Court of Milan and the decree law of last January 18 which aimed to strengthen the measures for the employment protection of workers and the continuity production in strategic companies such as the Italian steel group.
The judges reject the request for a group settlement
The Milan Bankruptcy Court, chaired by Laura De Simone, in addition to declaring the state of insolvency of Acciaierie d'Italia spa, as requested by the public shareholder Invitalia and the Extraordinary Commissioner Giancarlo Quaranta, rejected the requests of AdI with the majority private shareholder ArcelorMittal was essentially asking for a "blank" agreement for the entire group.
The judges declared the application for a composition with creditors for Adi spa to be "unprocedible", because the extraordinary administration procedure has already been opened and therefore, as provided for by the legislative decree of 18 January, other instruments for protecting the assets cannot be admitted.
A request for a conditional agreement which, according to the judges, cannot even apply to the other three companies in the group, namely AdI Energia srl, AdI Servizi Marittimi srl and AdI Tubiforma srl, because the "businesses" of the four companies in the group are " interdependent".
And also because the management is exclusively in the hands of AdI spa and it would therefore be impossible to manage a group restructuring project without AdI.
Furthermore, the legal representative of the other three is always Lucia Morselli.
The request for composition with creditors for the other three companies in the group was therefore declared "inadmissible".
The other three, however, could also enter into an extraordinary group administration procedure.
The Ministry of Economy will have to possibly evaluate the request to extend the administration to the other three companies and then the judges will have to, if necessary, declare the state of insolvency for these too.
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