Osborne Clarke advises on the revocation of the bankruptcy of Serist S.r.l. and in the homologation of the debt restructuring agreement

Osborne Clarke, with a team composed of Partner Filippo Canepa, Senior Associate Maurizio Zonca and Lawyer Cristina Ubertis Albano, assisted Serist s.r.l., leader on the market for the provision of canteen services to schools, hospitals, the armed forces and private companies, in its request for the Court's homologation of a Debt Restructuring Agreement according to art. 182 Insolvency Law, which was completed with the two main banks involved, as well as more than 165 suppliers.

The plan on which the Debt Restructuring Agreement is based, relating to debts of approximately Euro 40 million, was drafted by prof. Valter Zocchi, sole director of the company, with the support of financial advisor Annamaria Spotti, and provides for the payment of all creditors, both adhering and non-adhering, within an extremely short period of time, also thanks to the considerable sums made available, in case of homologation, by the company owners, and the financial resources generated by the transfer of the business, with over 1.000 employees, that took place during the pre-arrangement with creditors procedure that had been commenced and subsequently waived by the company.

The Court's homologation of the Debt Restructuring Agreement, issued by decision of the Court of Monza on 9-23 February 2022, was however preceded by a declaration by the court of the inadmissibility of the relevant request for homologation and the company's declaration of bankruptcy, which bankruptcy was subsequently revoked by the Milan Court of Appeal which accepted in full the claim presented by Osborne Clarke, returning the matter to the first instance Court of Monza for its the homologation of the Debt Restructuring Agreement, in the light of the assessment of feasibility of the plan rendered by the independent expert, Mr Mario Porcaro.