25/10/2006

The Bankruptcy Court of Rome has declared insolvent Finmavi, the holding company of the Cecchi Gori Group.

The lengthy battle between Vittorio Cecchi Gori and his creditors, which began with his financial crisis in 2002 and made it to court two years ago, seemed to be over at the end of the summer, when a green light was given to a previously drawn up provisional settlement. However, this agreement was not ratified at the last hearing on October 20, leaving the doors wide open for bankruptcy.

It was the creditor banks – headed by US firm Merrill Lynch, which had issued a €4.75m bond against Cecchi Gori’s prestigious film library, featuring numerous titles that make up Italian cinema history – that pushed for the bankruptcy sentence.

The US bank submitted a new bankruptcy request in August, after an initial request was rejected last July and, as a creditor owed €190m of the group’s total €630m debt, Merrill Lynch was also among those who voted against ratifying the settlement, bringing about the bankruptcy pronouncement.

Cecchi Gori says his lawyers are already appealing the decision, adding that, "a company was hit that for decades represented Italian cinema throughout the world and has been furthermore involved in new and ambitious film projects".

(Translated from Italian)