Borgo alle Vigne Update - January 2022

As you may be aware, we have been pursuing a legal action against Prime Investimenti (the developer of the Borgo Alle Vigne Resort) in Italy, to try and recover unpaid debts relating to the Borgo development. This was based on monies that are owed to one of the companies in the Best group. The hope was that this would result in a positive outcome for all those who have invested in the project.

On the basis that Prime has failed to settle all of its debts and had stopped engaging in any meaningful discussions with us, we had concluded that Prime could not afford to repay everyone and was insolvent. We pursued a bankruptcy petition against Prime with the expectation that an independent bankruptcy trustee would be appointed to take control of the company, and ensure that all assets were protected for the benefit of all of Prime’s creditors. Distributions from the trust account (that all sale proceeds from the resort are paid into) were put on hold whilst this process was ongoing.

 The Italian court concluded that Prime was not in fact insolvent and could afford to pay its debts, so it was not declared bankrupt. The court also referred to funds in the trust account being sufficient to repay Prime’s debts. We do have some concerns as to whether this is correct - we are aware that Prime has a number of competing creditors and are not sure of the total amounts owed.

 In line with the decision of the Italian court, we are now trying to engage with Hutchinson (who is in control of the trust account) and Hilton (who we know to be another significant creditor of Prime) to agree that funds in the trust account should be distributed ASAP. Previously, there has been some debate about the allocation of these funds and whether a payment would be made to Best and the various investor groups. We have not had any response from Hutchinson or Hilton following our most recent request to agree a distribution, but will keep pursuing them with a view to getting funds distributed ASAP and, crucially, to the correct beneficiaries.