A man appointed by an Italian court as special commissioner of Eurofood IFSC Ltd, an Irish firm that is the subject of an Irish High Court application for the appointment of a liquidator, had failed to inform insurers, said to be owed $120 million, of the Italian proceedings, the High Court was told.
Mr Denis McDonald SC, on behalf of several insurers stated to be owed $120 million, said he objected and deprecated the fact that his clients had not been informed of the Italian hearing and objected to the fact that it was suggested the Italian court decision was binding on his client.
The petition to appoint a liquidator has been brought before the High Court by Bank of America NA which is owed about €3.9 million by Eurofood, with an address at Harbourmaster Place, IFSC, Dublin. Eurofood is a whollyowned subsidiary of Parmalat SPA, a major global food firm incorporated in Italy, which is a subsidiary of Parmalat Finanziari SPA. The Parmalat group is said to be heavily insolvent.
Eurofood was incorporated in November 1997. It operated as an agency treasury centre providing financing facilities to members of the Parmalat group which are not resident in Ireland. It raised money by issuing loan notes to insurers. The notes were issued through Bank of America NA.
The insurance firmsare also supporting the petition. But the winding up application is being resisted by Mr Enrico Bondi who was appointed by the Italian Courts on February 9th as a special commissioner of Eurofood.
A provisional liquidator, Mr Pearse Farrell, was appointed to Eurofood following an application to the Irish courts on January 27th.
Yesterday, Mr McDonald said that, as a matter of European law, the appointment of a provisional liquidator constituted the opening of insolvency proceedings.
Following the appointment of Mr Farrell, the centre of main interest was Ireland, he said.
However, instead of deferring to the Irish court decision, Mr Bondi went to the Parma court in Italy.
This was done without having informed all interested parties, counsel said.
The hearing before Mr Justice Kelly continues today.
