Visibilia, all the oddities of Ruffino on which the judiciary investigates
Did Ruffino withhold communications from the market to avoid a mandatory takeover bid on Visibilia? Facts, numbers and insights
Did Ruffino withhold communications from the market to avoid a mandatory takeover bid on Visibilia?
This is what the authorities and the judiciary are ascertaining after the latest news that emerged from a statement from Consob.
Here are the latest news.
WHAT CONSOB COMMUNICATED ABOUT VISIBILIA AND RUFFINO
Consob adds a new piece in the Visibilia affair . The Italian Authority for the supervision of financial markets has carried out a "transparency operation on internal dealing and shareholding" of Visibilia Editore. Consob has investigated the evolution of “the shareholding structure of Visibilia Editore and the internal dealing operations carried out by dott. Luca Giuseppe Reale Ruffino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Visibilia Editore and of SIF Italia, companies traded on the Euronext Growth Milan (EGM), until his death on 5 August last”, reads a note from the Commission chaired by Paolo Savona .
WHO WAS THE MANAGER LUCA RUFFINO
Ruffino , director of Visibilia, as well as president and managing director of Sif Italia, a company for the administration and management of real estate assets, which managed over 80,000 private and public properties in the Aler, was found by suicide in his Milanese home on 5 August . In the tickets found and left by him for the family, no explanations about the gesture were found. It should be remembered that Ruffino was neither under investigation nor under investigation by the investigators. The position of minister Santanché is different and remains among the suspects, together with her sister Fiorella Garnero and comrade Dimitri Kunz of Habsburg, by the Milan prosecutor's office for false accounting and bankruptcy in the Visibilia case. The Revenue Agency has reached an agreement with the Srl in liquidation which will pay off the tax debt, of approximately one and a half million euros, over ten years.
CONTENTS OF THE CONSOB RESOLUTION: RUFFINO AND SIF HOLD 71.33% OF VISIBILIA
Consob in resolution no. 22799 of August 29, 2023 notes that in the last two months of its existence, from June to July Ruffino to July 17, had come to hold 21.31% of Visibilia Editore. In addition, Sif Italia, a company of which Ruffino was chairman and managing director, allegedly held a stake of more than 45.81%, as stated. The sum of the shares held by Ruffino and his company would thus reach 71.33 percent of the capital.
RUFFINO PURCHASED VISIBILIA SHARES AT A DAILY RHYTHM OF 335,000 EUROS
It is interesting to note how the picture of the corporate structure has changed rapidly over the last year. In September 2022, Ruffino held only 1.7%. This share has been growing more and more at a pace that intensified precisely in the two months prior to his disappearance, June and July, when exchanges were carried out every day for a total value of 335 thousand euros. All these operations had been omitted from the mandatory disclosures to the market. The reasons for these omissions are not known and Consob reserves the right to intervene with further investigations and, possibly, sanctions, underlines Il Sole 24 Ore .
CONSOB'S SUSPECTS: VISIBILIA SHARES HAVE INCREASED FROM 0.3 EUROS TO 2 EUROS
Among other things, these transactions came at a time when Visibilia shares, listed on Euronext Growth Milan, had reached the threshold of 2 euros, after a year in which they had not exceeded 0.3 euros. It would have been precisely these strange movements that prompted Consob to see clearly.
RELATIONS BETWEEN RUFFINO AND VISIBILIA EDITORE
The manager had acquired the company Visibilia Editore from Daniela Santanchè with a large injection of capital, around one million euros, saving them from financial collapse. Ruffino was busy dealing with the company's main creditors, was conducting negotiations with the Revenue Agency for a tax repayment plan and had also paid the severance pay and some arrears to Federica Bottiglione , the employee who had sued because she allegedly worked while without her knowledge she had been laid off at zero hours.
THE MOVES OF THE PROSECUTOR
The Milan prosecutor is investigating the omitted communications to the market or the delays in communications by Luca Ruffino, former president of Sif Italia and since March at the helm of Visibilia. According to the hypothesis of the Public Prosecutor who is working hand in hand with Consob – wrote the Agi agency – Ruffino should have informed the market with the dutiful internal dealing on purchases and sales that led the entrepreneur with his Sif to "rise ” more than 70% of the company founded by the minister Daniela Santanché. Also in the investigation documents is the resolution released this morning by Consob which, a source explained to the Agi news agency, essentially "replaced Ruffino", after repeatedly urging him to do so when he was in life, in providing "relevant data" to the market. Consob, the source reports, "pressed" the entrepreneur for a long time, however, obtaining the transmission of data "only in part", reads the resolution. The resolution was therefore necessary "considering that the information not disclosed to the public does not allow correct information and can, therefore, jeopardize the orderly conduct of the negotiations issued by Visibilia Editore and the integrity of the market". Among the hypotheses, that Ruffino may have concealed communications to avoid a mandatory takeover bid.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/visibilia-tutte-le-stranezze-di-ruffino-su-cui-indaga-la-magistratura/ on Wed, 30 Aug 2023 13:47:49 +0000.