MILANO – The arbitration award that was to settle the requests of the RCS publishing group against the American fund, to which the property in via Solferino was sold, closes in favor of Blackstone. According to the decision taken in these hours and confirmed by both parties, the hypothesis of compensation from Blackstone lapses.
The story dates back to 2013, when the Americans bought the real estate portfolio consisting of via San Marco and via Solferino for a total of 120 million euros, and then reassigned them to RCS itself. With the change of hands of RCS in 2016, that value was called into question by the new ownership of Urbano Cairo. Five years later, after RCS had vacated most of them, Blackstone, who was about to complete the resale in Allianz, filed a lawsuit before the New York Supreme Court accusing Cairo of interfering in the operation for having declared the previous sale, that of 2013, null.
After asking RCS to withdraw his statement, Blackstone announced on November 8, 2018 that he would be filing a lawsuit in New York to seek compensation. In response, RCS initiated an arbitration in Milan asking for the cancellation of the 2013 transaction. According to Cairo, the fund would have taken advantage of the difficulties of the publishing group and obtained a lower price than that appropriate for the property, indicated up to 200 million. .
A year ago it seemed that RCS had scored a point: the arbitration chamber affirmed its competence to decide the matter, judged the contracts of the 2013 transaction to be valid but postponed to a subsequent evaluation – after the technical consultations – the fact that the of the purchaser (Blackstone) could give rise to damages in favor of RCS, which in the affair was followed bythe office of the lawyer Sergio Erede. Compensation which, however, at this point, is no longer on the table and that the Blackstone fund, with the lawyers Francesco Gatti and Carlo Pavesi, will not have to pay.
“The Arbitral Tribunal rejects the claims brought by RCS against Kryalos (i.e. Blackstone, ed) and compensates the costs of the proceedings between said parties, acknowledging that the award was approved by majority vote with the favorable vote of the president Renato Rordorf and the arbitrator Vincenzo Mariconda and with the contrary vote of the arbitrator Vincenzo Roppo “, reads today’s device “Although in a context not devoid of some ambiguities and uncertainties, they did not emerge sufficiently unambiguous to suggest that it was proved that, when the contract under discussion was stipulated, RCS was in a situation of economic or financial difficulty such as to affect significantly on its ability to self-limit and, therefore, to integrate the requisite necessary to configure the crime of usury. “And then it is added that the sale of the building in 2013 was for” management “reasons, not because it was in a position to sell” to any cost “.
In the note that RCS published after the precision, it emerges that the ex officio expert set the value of the property at 153, 33 million above that of the sale, but the award “does not consider this depoportion to be of sufficient importance”. RCS, he adds, “without prejudice to the fact that it does not share the judgment of the two arbitrators and that it reserves all judgments and all rights, underlines that even from the reasons for the award no incorrectness or bad faith of RCS emerges, which vice versa acted for the due protection of the corporate assets, damaged by the significant difference in value with which the Property was sold in 2013. The final award, confirming that RCS did not act incorrectly and even less recklessly, reinforces, like the partial one of last year, the position of the Company before the Supreme Court of the State of New York (where the proceedings brought by the counterparties are suspended) “.
Just today, the Cairo group that controls RCS has released the accounts for the quarter: it recorded gross consolidated revenues up to 246.8 million (241.1 million in the same period of 2020), positive gross operating margin of 13.7 million ( was 2.1 million in the same period of last year), a negative operating result of 5.5 million (negative for 16.6 million in 2020) and a loss of 3.9 million (compared to the loss of 7 million in the first quarter last year). Consolidated net financial debt is reduced, which is equal to approximately 42 million euros at 31 March 2020 (63.2 million at 31 December 2020).
Looking ahead, the group believes it “has adequate management levers to counter the effects of the health emergency also in 2021 and therefore confirm its medium-long term prospects”. Therefore, “in consideration of the actions already implemented and those planned, in the absence of a tightening of the measures for the containment of the contagion, extension of their duration, or significant expansion of the regions classified in the highest risk brackets”, the group believes that “it is possible to confirm the objective of achieving margins (ebitda) in 2021 that are higher than those achieved in 2020 and a consequent further significant reduction in financial debt”.
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