Mr Enrico Bondi, the government-appointed commissioner of Parmalat, intends to tackle the crisis at the fallen Italian food and dairy giant by concentrating on talks with Parmalat's bondholders, the rescue of high-quality company assets and co-operation with judicial investigators.
People close to Mr Bondi outlined his three-pronged strategy yesterday, one day after a group of six foreign insurance companies holding unpaid Parmalat bonds sued to win control of two Parmalat subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands.
The bondholders announced their action as public prosecutors in Italy made rapid progress in uncovering details of a gigantic alleged fraud at Parmalat that involved the use of dozens of offshore front companies to invent assets and conceal billions of euros of liabilities.
Parmalat's creditors and investors range from some of the world's biggest banks to tens of thousands of Italian citizens whose stocks and bonds are worthless as a result of one of Europe's largest corporate scandals.
Mr Bondi was appointed Parmalat's commissioner on Wednesday after the company took advantage of an emergency government decree to file for fast-track bankruptcy.
Although one Italian government minister identified the preservation of jobs as Parmalat's priority, people close to Mr Bondi said he was determined the company should face its responsibilities to its bondholders.
"The message from Bondi is that, yes, jobs are important, but there has to be a market solution to this, too," one of his advisers said. "Until Wednesday, he was concentrating on getting the bankruptcy decree in place. Now his focus is on organising talks with the bondholders."
Bingham McCutchen, a US law firm representing more than 50 institutions holding about $2 billion (€1.4 billion) in Parmalat bonds, on Wednesday said it looked forward to working with Mr Bondi to identify Parmalat's real assets and liabilities and to recover as much as possible.
Before its collapse, Parmalat was Italy's eighth-biggest industrial group with a market capitalisation of €1.8 billion.
About 20 people, including three former Parmalat chief financial officers, have been placed under investigation for fraud and rigging of markets, but no one has been arrested or formally charged.
According to one person close to the investigation, a picture has emerged of fraudulent accounting that dates back at least to 1990, when Parmalat was listed. - (Financial Times Service)
