RCS, here’s how Cairo crashed into Blackstone
What can be read in the arbitration award defined between RCS and Blackstone on the sale of the building in via Solferino. All the details and insights from Repubblica and Mf-Milano Finanza
Blackstone wins the arbitration award promoted by RCS, under the management of Urbano Cairo (number one shareholder of the group with 59.8% ), for the sale to the US fund of the real estate complex in via Solferino-via San Marco in Milan, which includes also the headquarters of the Corriere della Sera .
RCS: LODO, SALE TO BLACKSTONE MANAGEMENT CHOICE NOT OUT OF NECESSITY ( source: Radiocor ):
RCS has chosen to sell the real estate complex in Via Solferino in Milan to Blackstone for "management" reasons and not because it found itself in a position to sell "at any cost".
This is what is stated in the Arbitration Award defined between RCS and Blackstone – consulted by Radiocor – for the sale of the property in Via Solferino to the US fund.
"The preference given to Blackstone's offer, in particular over that made by the competitor Hines for a similar amount, was motivated by the fact that the first was not subject to any previous financing and therefore appeared more solid and more quickly achievable" , it is reported in the text, recalling that "the development plan drawn up by RCS envisaged the disposal of non-core assets by the end of 2014".
Therefore, according to the Award, "having favored greater speed in concluding the sale cannot be univocally interpreted as proof of the need in which RCS would have found itself to immediately sell those assets and to do so at any cost, but rather constitutes a management choice , also linked to the greater solidity attributed to the Blackstone offer ". And this, he continues, "evidently implies the belief (no matter whether it is more or less well founded) that the further prolongation of the sales procedure over time would have risked, on the one hand, to make a solid offer vanish and, on the other verso, would not have made it possible to obtain other advantageous offers ". All the more so since “nothing obliged Rca to put in place a competitive sales procedure, rather than directly proceeding to enter into any private negotiation”.
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EXCERPT FROM AN ARTICLE OF THE REPUBLIC ON THE PRAISE:
All regular, no compensation is due from the American Blackstone fund to the RCS publishing house for the purchase of the building in via Solferino, the historic headquarters of Corriere della Sera , which took place at the end of 2013 for 120 million euros. The sale contract is valid, as had already been established by the partial award of June 2020, while the final arbitration award, which arrived yesterday evening, "resolved by majority" with the favorable vote of the chairman of the arbitration panel Renato Rordorf and Vincenzo Mariconda and the contrary of Vincenzo Roppo, rejected all the claims for compensation from RCS. Which had accused Blackstone of usury and asked for the cancellation of the contracts and the return of the property, which an expert valued 153 million, against the 120 of the sale contract.
Thus ends three years of legal battles that have seen Urbano Cairo, manager and main shareholder of RCS, take action against the Americans on the basis of the advice of the BonelliErede studio. Blackstone, on the other hand, was assisted by the Gatti, Pavesi, Bianchi, Ludovici studio. However, the possibility of a second round of lawsuits in New York remains open, where Blackstone from the beginning denounced RCS for making him vanish the sale of the property in via Solferino to Allianz for a value that in 2018 was said to be equal to 240 million. . The New York judge had suspended the proceedings pending the conclusion of the Italian arbitration award. Now that this has come, according to sources close to the American fund, it is very likely that he will be able to resume the case before the Supreme Court of New York. In his initial complaint Blackstone had acted both against the Italian publishing house, asking for 300 million in compensation, and personally against Cairo, with a request for another 300 million. However, the RCS assembly had relieved Cairo of any responsibility.
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EXTRACT FROM AN ARTICLE BY MF-MILANO FINANZA:
The loser, across the board, was the company controlled by Urbano Cairo since 2016 (it obtained indemnity from the board of directors on the matter) which had made compensation claims against the real estate giant made in the USA after the latter, in 2018 , as anticipated by MF-Milano Finanza, had defined the sale of the same properties to the insurance group Allianz which had offered 250 million, more than double the amount paid out by Blackstone five years earlier, or 120 million.
The conclusion of the arbitration award can now open new scenarios on the future ownership structure of the publishing house which in the meantime has approved the adoption of the increased vote with which the shareholder Cairo Communication holds 65.3% of voting rights. But on the market there are hypotheses of possible interventions by new Italian investors. Unconfirmed rumors refer to Leonardo Del Vecchio and the Pesenti family, already historic shareholder of the group at the time of the parlor. That pool of shareholders that had been defeated, by raises and re-raises, by Cairo itself five years ago.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/rcs-ecco-come-cairo-si-e-schiantato-contro-blackstone/ on Sat, 15 May 2021 09:08:40 +0000.