MILAN-Creditor banks of troubled Italian real estate group Risanamento are considering the guaranteeing a €220 million bond as part of a deal to bail out the company, but a meeting in late August was held without all banks yet having agreed to participate. A court hearing on a state prosecutor bankruptcy ruling on Risanamento is due on Sept. 22.

The board of Risanamento, which is struggling under €3 billion of debt, cleared the guidelines for a €500 million debt restructuring plan late in July in a move aimed at averting bankruptcy. Magistrates set Risanamento a Sept. 1 deadline to finalize the restructuring after a Milan state prosecutor in July requested that Risanamento be declared bankrupt.

Creditor banks Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Monte dei Paschi, Banco Popolare and Popolare di Milano will guarantee the repayment of the bond issued by Risanamento in 2007 and due in 2014, according to local media. However Risanamento said in a statement issued at the behest of market regulator Consob: "That the banks .. would be ready .. to open a stand-by credit line to guarantee the reimbursement of the bond issued by the company in May 2007 is at present just a hypothesis under study."

Risanamento, founded by Luigi Zunino at the start of this decade, initially focused on the sale of commercial space but later evolved towards the redevelopment of strategic metropolitan areas in Italy and abroad. The last portfolio value, made at the end of 2007, put the portfolio value at around €5 billion. It retains a portfolio of upmarket office and mixed use assets in the Paris CBD, many of them luxury buildings in the 8th quarter.