January 18, 2021
The Court of Palermo validated at the end of December 2020 the debt restructuring agreements, pursuant to articles 182 bis and ter of the Bankruptcy Law, signed at the end of October by the companies of the KSM group and by Sicurtransport, companies active at a national level in the security and value transport sector owned by the BIKS Group of the Basile family.
CapitaLink acted as financial advisor for the operation, along with legal advisor Dentons and the Stagno d’Alcontres firm.
Commercial suppliers, creditor banks (including Unicredit), the Revenue Agency, Sicilia Collection, and Inps (for the contributory part related to the workforce) joined the restructuring agreements, for a total debt subject to restructuring of about 100 million euros.
The validation follows the signing, which took place last November 2020, of three tax transactions conducted with the Revenue Agency, agreeing, in addition to the reduction of the amounts due following the non-payment of taxes, a deferral of payment of 22 years. This was the widest deferral granted by the Revenue Agency in relation to registered and unregistered debts. In these transactions, KSM was assisted by PwC TLS. At the same time, three contributory transaction acts were also signed with Inps.
The debt restructuring agreements are aimed at restoring the overall debt exposure and ensuring the rebalancing of the economic, asset, and financial situation of the group’s companies, which have approximately 3,000 employees and an aggregate turnover of about 95 million euros.
The completion of the agreements was made possible by the significant financial support of the Basile family, also thanks to the financial resources that became available following the sale to Sicuritalia of the IVRI Group in August 2019, fully allocated for the relaunch of the companies. In November 2015, BIKS had signed a capital increase in IVRI of 50-60 million, with the support of Unicredit and the then Banca Popolare di Milano. Remember that BIKS Group also controls the security guards of Sicurcenter, Saetta Trasporti, and Argo.
