RNS23 Jun 2020 08:12
Mediapolis Settlement
The Board of Clear Leisure (AIM: CLP) is pleased to announce that a settlement
agreement has been reached with the Mediapolis Receiver regarding the transfer
of the Mediapolis auction funds from the Receiver to the Company's wholly-owned
subsidiary, Clear Leisure 2017 Ltd ("CL 2017").
Under the terms of the settlement, following negotiations with the Receiver and
the approvals of the Italian Court and the Creditors committee, an amount of EUR
1,663,000 is payable to CL2017. This represents a discount of approximately 14%
on the auction proceeds from the Mediapolis real estate sale of EUR1,938,469 and
is, after deducting certain costs and fees connected to the sale of the real
estate and outstanding business rate that must, by law, be paid from the
auction proceeds.
As part of the agreement, CL 2017 is in a bidding process with the Receiver to
buy Mediapolis's rights to a potential claim against former Mediapolis
directors and members of its internal audit committee, which has yet to be
served. The exact amount of the claim is yet to be determined but could be in
the order of millions of euros. The sum of EUR50,000 of the amount now due to CL
2017 will be kept in escrow by the Receiver until the bidding process to sell
the rights of the potential claim are completed.
Additionally, under Italian bankruptcy law, 20% of the auction proceeds must be
kept in escrow by the Receiver until the closing of the bankruptcy process. The
first payment to CL 2017 will, therefore, be EUR1,480,932.82 (being 80% of EUR
1,938,469.98, the net land sales proceeds, less EUR50,000, being the deposit for
the claim bid, plus a few of thousand euros of expenses).
A final payment of EUR182,067 (less EUR50,000 if the potential claims mentioned
above are assigned to CL 2017) will be made to CL 2017 at the end of the
bankruptcy procedure.
Following the settlement, neither Clear Leisure nor CL 2017 will have any
future claim as creditors, while the Receiver will have no claim against Clear
Leisure and CL 2017. However, if any funds remain at the end of the bankruptcy
process and, after settling other creditors, the proceeds will be divided,
pro-rata, to shareholders. Clear Leisure is a 84.04% rightful shareholder in
Mediapolis.
The only sizeable remaining funds could come from an historic claim against
Piedmont Region for EUR39.6m, the hearing for which has been pending since the
new Company board was appointed in 2015. The Receiver's lawyers believe there
is merit in pursuing this claim, but there can be no certainty as to whether
any claim might be successful, the amount that might be awarded under the claim
if it is successful and the timing of any conclusion to the claim.
For sake of clarity the Sardinia Villas, the ownership of which have been
disputed by the receiver of the original seller, are unlikely to generate any
proceeds for Mediapolis.
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