MILAN. The Milan Court of Appeal rejected “in full” the appeal brought by RCS in the case against the ruling of the Milan Arbitration Chamber in favor of Blackstone relating to the sale to the American fund for about 120 million euros of the real estate portfolio consisting of via San Marco and via Solferino, including the historic headquarters of The Corriere della Sera, to then re-let them to the same publishing group. The judges of the first civil section (president and rapporteur Carla Romani Raineri) decided this with a sentence.
In May 2021, the arbitration award had not accepted the compensation claims of RCS, which requested the cancellation of the sale, which took place – this is the thesis of the lawyers of the publishing group – at a price lower than that appropriate due to the financial difficulties of the company. . But the final award, on the other hand, had established that RCS had decided to sell the properties for “managerial” reasons and not because it was in the position of having to sell “at any cost”, not recognizing the crime of usury and thus invalidating all compensation claims. A reconstruction in the meantime also accepted by the Milan prosecutor and then by a judge who ordered the dismissal of the dispute on the criminal front.
RCS had presented seven grounds of appeal against the award of the Arbitration Chamber of Milan to demonstrate, first of all, how its economic difficulty clearly emerges in the contracts and accounts of the listed group, and therefore how the financial situation has influenced the choices and decisions negotiations that would have “favored” Blackstone. For the three lawyers, who discussed RCS for almost three hours, there was a situation of economic difficulty such as to affect his ability to self-determine and, therefore, to integrate the requisite necessary to configure the crime of usury. Version to which Blackstone’s lawyers opposed who underlined and reiterated the goodness and legitimacy of the operation. The judges did not provide a date for the sentence but guaranteed the parties to respect the terms.
Now the game moves to the United States. The compensation case is under discussion before the New York Supreme Court, this time brought by the Blackstone fund against RCS and Cairo for 600 million dollars (300 million for the non-resale of the real estate complex in Allianz Real Estate due, according to the lawyers of the fund, of the interference exercised by RCS, and another 300 million in related damages.