Parmalat administrator Enrico Bondi, who guided the Italian dairy group through almost two years of bankruptcy administration, confirmed yesterday that he would accept a nomination to stay on at the group's helm.
Bondi said in a statement he was prepared to continue if shareholders give him a "clear and strong" mandate next month. Earlier, sources close to the situation said a group of former Parmalat bondholders and Lehman Brothers would nominate Bondi as part of a list of board members at a November shareholder meeting, aiming to keep him as chief executive.
Parmalat creditors, who exchanged most of the group's debt for shares in a re-listing three weeks ago, will vote on the new board at a meeting on November 7th-8th.
"It is the CEO position (Bondi would take)," one of the sources said. "At some point, in a few quarters, he would move upstairs as chairman, and someone with more operational, dairy experience would take over (as CEO).
"This will allow a transition period ... and time to find the best person to run the company. The group has talked to a wide range of shareholders."
Parmalat collapsed in 2003 under €14 billion of debt after an initial discovery that a supposed €4 billion bank account was fake. Lehman is proposing a full list of directors, the source said, but would not give any names.
Backers for the Bondi list include Italian shareholders as well as non-Italian shareholders who were formerly bondholders, but does not include any of the international banks that are the target of multibillion dollar lawsuits for their alleged role in the company's fraud and collapse, the source said. The source said none of those international banks was approached.
Bondi said Parmalat was "ready to move forward independently to realise its full industrial and financial potential."
Over two years of bankruptcy administration, Bondi has led a multibillion euro campaign to claim compensation from financial partners he says helped plunge the group into insolvency.
"One reason for accepting is that he knows that at the helm his work will not be wasted," another source close to the situation said, adding political backing from the Industry Ministry had been a major factor in Bondi's choice to stay on.
Citigroup, which holds about 3.44 per cent of Parmalat, according to data on the bourse's website, and is one of the banks facing lawsuits from the dairy firm, said in a statement it would decide what to do with its voting rights "at the right moment."
Parmalat's administrators have filed US lawsuits to recover $10 billion in damages from Citigroup, Bank of America and the group's auditors.
