CTE concludes Bizzocchi deal

CTE has concluded the deal to take over Bizzocchi, having reached agreement with the judge who had been administering the Bertinoro-based manufacturer since it entered receivership in mid-November.

Giovanni Scarlini, the newly appointed director general of SOL GE, the 80% CTE-owned company that has acquired Effer Holding/Bizzocchi, told AI that SOL had agreed to 'rent' Bizzocchi from the court administrator until a final assessment of the value of inventory at Bizzocchi's Bertinoro factory had been made, a process that he said could take up to four weeks. He said SOL would then complete the full acquisition of the company.

Mr Scarlini, who joined SOL in early November and who has managerial experience of fork lift manufacturing in Italy as well as periods with a private equity company, said SOL had reached an agreement with trade unions to employ around 35 of Bizzocchi's workforce, probably within three months, and that workers would start back at the company on Monday 9 January. (See www.khl.com for a longer version of this story.)