La Perla, temporary agreement at Mimit between British liquidators and Italian commissioners to restart production and sales

There was a risk that the table would be blown, but after two days a note came out from Mimit that British liquidators of La Perla Global Management UK and receivers and commissioners of the Italian subsidiaries had reached an initial temporary agreement to resume the production and sale of high-end 'Made in Bologna' lingerie (the manufacturing company in Via Mattei is in receivership) using the historic brand name that is now in British hands and selling them through the Italian trading company (in judicial liquidation). The formula used officially is that an 'interim agreement has been reached to allow La Perla Manufacturing to produce 'La Perla' branded garments and market them'.

The communiqué published by Palazzo Piacentini, after 'a two-day working session to the bitter end of the La Perla table', is stringent, the unions are waiting to meet with the commissioners of La Perla Manufacturing before making a pronouncement. The hope was and remains that the bankruptcy procedure activated so far by the Court of Bologna only for Manufacturing (the only one with more than 200 employees, a requirement for extraordinary administration) will also be extended to the merchandising company and the management company, therefore to the British parent company, in order to bring all the 'pieces' of La Perla together in the hands of the Italian commissioners and facilitate the interest of potential buyers. On this the note says nothing, only that 'the meetings were attended by the ministry executives, a representation of the British liquidators and the Italian curators of La Perla Global Management, the commissioners of La Perla Manufacturing and the curator of La Perla Italia. All the procedures worked to finalise a memorandum of understanding - the first ever after Brexit - aimed at the best valorisation of the Group and an effective coordination of the procedures'. The work to unify the procedures is therefore only just beginning. Mimit's note concludes that 'the procedures have committed to continue discussions to resolve the outstanding issues, with the expectation of concluding everything as soon as possible'.

The cross-border bankruptcy affair, the first relevant case post-Brexit and with a new Crisis Code in force in Italy, is destined to become an emblematic case and make history in European jurisprudence as well, not only in high fashion for the spectacular protests to the tune of giant panties and bras made by the workers between Bologna, Rome and Brussels. The conviction that the only way to save jobs is the unification of the Italian and English procedures was reinforced three days ago by the meeting held in the headquarters of the Emilia-Romagna Region with jurists, politicians, academics and trade unions, who analysed the legal procedure in point of law and took stock of the chances of restarting the La Perla group, a year after the crisis exploded. Since this week, 25 of the group's approximately 250 female workers in Italy have returned to the corsetry factory in Via Mattei, in view of a gradual resumption of production under the guidance of three government commissioners who arrived last May. But without any guarantee of being able to stick the La Perla brand name on and sell, because the brand - like all assets - since 2017 has been owned by the British holding company La Perla Global Management UK (in turn controlled in matrioska by Dutch funds headed by Lars Windhorst), placed in liquidation in November 2023 by the British Court. "The reopening of production will play a central role with respect to the game of selling the company," assures Stefania Pisani, general secretary of Filctem CGIL Bologna, recalling that the restart was possible thanks to the intervention of Tyche Bank, a bank specialised in bankruptcy proceedings and corporate finance that provided the liquidity necessary for La Perla to restart. It must be considered that ten purchase offers have arrived for Manufacturing, but a serious entrepreneur takes over all the pieces of the company and the brand, because this is the only way the group has a real value on the market and jobs are safeguarded'.

The British holding company has split the old La Perla into three LLCs, three Italian companies that are legally independent, but in fact three business units or functions of a single company: production in Via Mattei in Bologna, La Perla Manufacturing, which has been playing the extraordinary administration card since May; the commercial part, i.e. the shops, in the belly of La Perla Italia (which does not sell anything unless it is produced in Via Mattei); and the Italian administrative part that answers to La Perla Management, which in turn works if there are production processes and workers to manage. The Court of Bologna declared last February the state of insolvency not only for these last two Italian companies but also for the overseas holding company already in the hands of English liquidators, freezing among other things the brand. An unprecedented and courageous case of intervention on assets outside Italian jurisdiction.

"La Perla has never experienced an economic crisis in recent years, only a liquidity crisis due to the speculative approach of the Tennor fund, there is nothing to restructure," says Fabio Onofri, chartered accountant and auditor, loud and clear, speaking at the conference in the Region, bringing data from the latest balance sheets filed by Italian companies (referring to 2022): "As we can read from the financial statements of La Perla Manufacturing and La Perla Italia, it is clear that revenues abundantly cover costs, profit and loss accounts are closed at a loss for accounting reasons, with write-downs of inventories disconnected from reality and service and interest costs that have risen due to Windhorst's fund choices, for operations that have nothing to do with the characteristic management of corsetry production".