MILAN — Two days of what were expected to be final meetings to reach a decision on a sale of GFT SpA to Plaid Clothing Group have come and gone, with no announcement and apparently no resolution, according to sources familiar with the talks. There is speculation that the time frame for making the decision will once again be extended.
“There was no official news out of the meetings. There is no decision yet,” said one financial source, who noted that late Thursday there were still several of GFT’s creditor banks discussing the situation at the headquarters here of Mediobanca, the Milan merchant bank that has been coordinating GFT’s financial restructuring.
Plaid, offering to buy GFT for $245.7 million (390 billion lire) at current exchange, has been negotiating since March, when it beat out an offer from Mexican entrepreneur Fabio Covarrubias and won an exclusive to deal for the designer label manufacturer.
Sources say that Covarrubias, however, now is allied with former GFT managing director Clemente Signoroni, who left the firm in June. Signoroni, according to sources, had been attempting in the past to interest Fiat group companies Gemina SpA and Fila SpA in buying GFT, in an effort to keep the apparel manufacturer Italian-owned. However, they say, he has given up on that.
Since Plaid’s exclusive expired in July, Covarrubias, also flanked by a group of institutional investors, reportedly has put on the table a new, competitive bid of at least $250 million (397 billion lire) for GFT.
In this week’s happenings, Mediobanca reportedly met with Plaid chairman Omar Al Askari and other Plaid representatives on Wednesday and then with GFT’s seven leading creditor banks on Thursday.
None of the parties involved has agreed to comment openly on the talks. Banking sources familiar with the negotiations speculated that a deadline for making a decision may well be extended until Sept. 15, which is the outside date in Plaid’s preliminary agreement to close the deal.
The sources said the additional extension may be a move to give Plaid as much time as legally possible to come up with the financing to complete the agreement.
“I know for a fact that as of today, they did not have all the money committed,” said one financial source.
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However, another source said Plaid was still “forging ahead” with its bid.
— Fairchild News Service