Luxury Italian hat maker
Borsalino, which celebrated its 160th anniversary earlier this
year, has gone bankrupt after a court on Monday rejected a
request for an agreement with creditors, trade union
representatives said.
The company, which employs 135 workers, has not released an
official statement yet.
The court in Alessandria, where Borsalino is based, rejected
a bankruptcy agreement request filed by Haeres Equita srl, the
company owned by Swiss entrepreneur Philippe Camperio.
Union representatives, who met with the company's workers in
the afternoon, have requested to meet with administrators
Stefano Ambrosini and Paola Barisone.
"We have already asked for a meeting with the
administrators", said Elio Bricola, a representative of the UIL
trade union.
Maria Iennaco, the representative of another trade union,
CGIL, said workers at the Borsalino factory in the town of
Spinetta Marengo near Alessandria were "tense and nervous".
"This is an absurd situation - there is work, there are
orders that have been placed and therefore we can only be angry
after the court's decision", Iennaco said, adding that workers
are scheduled to meet with Camperio in the coming days.
Last year, Camperio became the new majority stakeholder of
the once family-owned Borsalino through Haeres Equita, a private
equity investment company.
The transaction was estimated at about 20 million euros,
corresponding to Borsalino's debts.
The hat maker was able to keep its production in Alessandria
as a result and the company's activity continued with a forecast
revenue this year of 17 million euros.
The court on Monday rejected a bankruptcy agreement for a
second time after ruling against a previous request last
December, which paved the way to a new industrial plan presented
this spring.
Borsalino, whose hats have been donned by celebrities and
Hollywood stars including Humphrey Bogart in 'Casablanca' and
Alain Delon and Jean Paul Belmondo in 'Borsalino', was founded
by the eponymous family in 1857.
Despite a strong brand, the company lost millions of euros
over the past few years, returning to profit only at the
beginning of 2015, amid Italy's deep financial crisis and a
scandal involving former majority owner Marco Marenco.
Marenco was stripped of his powers in 2008 and arrested in
2015 over alleged bankruptcy and fraud.
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