By Claudia Cristoferi and Alfredo Faieta
MILAN, Might 14 (Reuters) – A Milan arbitral tribunal dominated in favour of Blackstone Group BX.N in a disputed sale of the headquarters of RCS RCSM.MI, rejecting all claims superior by the Italian writer, a court docket doc seen by Reuters confirmed, confirming what sources had mentioned earlier on Friday.
RCS Mediagroup, which publishes the influential each day Corriere della Sera, launched arbitration proceedings in late 2018 to nullify the 2013 sale of its historic headquarters in central Milan to Blackstone, saying the U.S. funding agency had paid too low a value at a time when RCS confronted monetary difficulties.
Blackstone, which paid 120 million euros ($145 million) for the workplaces, had in flip accused RCS of falsely claiming it nonetheless owns the constructing and of improperly blocking its sale to Germany’s Allianz ALVG.DE.
The sale of the property “was nothing greater than a business negotiation” by which the client “legitimately” tried to attain the “most advantageous phrases of sale” with out proof of “any undue stress on the opposite celebration,” the arbitration award mentioned.
“The panel of judges absolutely recognised the validity of the contract and the equity of Blackstone’s behaviour throughout all of the sale course of,” a supply near the U.S. fund mentioned.
RCS mentioned in a press release it disagreed with the choice and that it will think about any doable authorized motion towards it.
Friday’s ultimate resolution by the tribunal follows a partial ruling printed in Might final yr that the sale was legitimate.
The ruling had requested two professional surveys on RCS’s monetary state of affairs in 2013 and on the property’s market worth on the time, to evaluate whether or not there had been any damages for RCS and to what diploma.
The U.S. funding agency filed two lawsuits in New York which had been placed on maintain pending the result of the arbitration in Italy.
It’s looking for as much as $600 million in damages from RCS and from its chairman and fundamental shareholder Urbano Cairo, who took management of the corporate in 2016, a supply near the fund mentioned on the time.
RCS famous on Friday that there was no discovering of impropriety or dangerous religion towards the Italian firm, which “quite the opposite acted to duly defend the corporate’s property”.
RCS’s monetary report, printed on the corporate’s web site, exhibits it has not put aside danger provisions for the authorized dispute.
(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi and Alfredo Faieta in Milan Enhancing by Giulia Segreti and Matthew Lewis)
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