The Italian Sea Group has taken a decisive step in the management of its financial crisis. In a statement released just minutes ago, the company announced that its Board of Directors, meeting on 30 June, resolved to file a petition pursuant to Article 44 of Legislative Decree No. 14 of 12 January 2019—the so-called domanda prenotativa (protective filing)—to gain access to the legal safeguards provided under Italian insolvency law and preserve business continuity and the value of the company’s assets, in the interests of the company, its creditors and all stakeholders. According to the statement, the filing was expected to be submitted later today.
According to TISG, the decision was primarily driven by the latest developments in discussions with yacht owners, which no longer allowed the company to consider a restructuring achievable solely through the negotiated settlement process. In order to prevent the passage of time from further reducing the chances of a successful turnaround, the Board decided to bring forward the change in strategy from the timetable initially envisaged, authorising the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer to file the petition with full powers.
This marks a significant escalation in the company’s restructuring process: from the confidential, out-of-court negotiations that characterised the negotiated settlement procedure—on which the company had relied until only a few weeks ago, as highlighted in our previous analysis of the Group’s financial position—to a court-supervised legal instrument which, once filed, automatically grants the statutory protections available to financially distressed but economically viable businesses. It offers a more structured and robust framework than the negotiated procedure, while also acknowledging that direct negotiations with yacht owners have failed to produce a sufficient solution.
The company stated that filing the petition will allow TISG to continue operating under the protection of the measures provided by law. It also confirmed that it will keep the market promptly informed of further developments in compliance with its disclosure obligations.
The move comes only a few weeks after the disclosure requested by Consob, which revealed the scale of the financial crisis—more than €266 million in overdue liabilities against just €7.5 million in available cash—and only days before the expiry, on 14 July, of the protective measures previously granted by the Florence Court. The filing effectively supersedes those temporary protections by replacing them with a separate legal framework offering broader and potentially longer-lasting safeguards.
The next key milestone remains 22 July, when shareholders will meet to address the erosion of the company’s share capital below the statutory minimum, pursuant to Article 2447 of the Italian Civil Code.