The scope of applicability of protective measures in negotiated group settlement

At the hearing to confirm the protective measures requested by a group of companies that filed an application for access to the negotiated crisis settlement, the Court of Ravenna addressed the issue of the applicability of the measures to group companies for which the plan provided for liquidation. 

The recovery plan included the entire liabilities of the perimeter of the companies belonging to the group and provided for the exploitation of financial flows produced by the continuity of some of them for the benefit, first of all, of the holding company and, subsequently, of all other companies (including those to be liquidated). 

As for fumus, i.e., the reasonable likelihood of recovery, the court espoused the view that it exists only for companies for which business continuity is envisaged. Consistent with Article 25 CCII, the reasonable probability of reorganization for the group of companies exists only if, at the outcome of the plan, the complex of organizational and managerial synergies is preserved since "the value of group continuity does not correspond to the atomistic sum of that of its components" but rather as an asset to be protected in itself.

On the subject of periculum, understood as the functionality of the measures with respect to the objective of reorganization, the court found it necessary to protect companies in continuous.
On these grounds, the Court of Ravenna upheld the protective measures limited to those companies for which the recovery plan provided for continuity.