A Lazio regional administrative court (TAR) on Wednesday rejected a suit filed by a consumers rights group aimed at blocking a French bid to take over Italian dairy foods multinational Parmalat.
The court's decision came a day after Parmalat's board unanimously said that the offer being made by Groupe Lactalis SA was "inadequate" and did not reflect the multinational's value.
The court's decision came a day after Parmalat's board unanimously said that the offer being made by Groupe Lactalis SA was "inadequate" and did not reflect the multinational's value.
The consumer group Codacons had argued before the TAR that the Lactalis bid should be suspended because it had violated Italian laws regarding market transparency and was thus misleading for shareholders asked to sell their stock.
The court, however, found that the means used by Parmalat and Lactalis to give information on the offer, "including those on the Web", were sufficient for shareholders to draw their own conclusions on whether or not to sell their stock.
The decision by the Parmalat board, on the other hand, was based on the fact that the close to 2.60 euros per share offered by the French group was not a "fair" price and reflected only the stock's current market value without offering a premium to those selling their shares.
The board's action had been expected given that the 2.60 euros offered by Lactalis was below the 2.80 euros it paid to three funds in March for a 15.3% stake in Parmalat, which allowed the French group to acquire a total of 29% in the dairy and foods giant.
The board's decision, however, is not binding and shareholders are free to sell.
Italy's stock market watchdog Consob on Friday gave its green light to the Lactalis bid which will run from May 23 to July 8.
The approval came despite a probe opened by Italian judicial authorities into possible insider trading and share-rigging regarding Lactalis' acquisition of the 15.3% of Parmalat in March. Lactalis itself has not been implicated in the probe and the French dairy giant has stressed that its purchase of the Parmalat stake had been "transparent" and that it was at the "complete disposal" of investigators.
In a statement issued last week, Lactalis said it was "certain of the total correctness and transparency of the operations of purchasing shares in Parmalat Spa,".
By taking over Parmalat, Lactalis would create a dairy giant with an annual turnover of some 14 billion euros and result in major cost savings due to the overlap of the two group's activities in Europe.
Lactalis had indicated that it may merge into Parmalat its milk activities in France and Spain, maintaining the Italian company's name and brand.
Parmalat was declared bankrupt in December 2003 after it emerged that four billion euros it supposedly held in an offshore Bank of America account did not in fact exist.
The case then snowballed, eventually leading to Parmalat's collapse amid debts of some 14.5 billion euros and a fraud scandal which rocked the Italian financial world.
Investigators found that from 1990 until 2002 Parmalat lost money every year except one but nonetheless reported uninterrupted profits and routinely forged documents in order to deceive banks and regulators.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission called the case ''one of the largest and most brazen corporate financial frauds in history''. Parmalat's bankruptcy - dubbed 'Europe's Enron' - left more than 150,000 investors with virtually worthless bonds.
Parmalat has since been put back on its feet by corporate turnaround expert Enrico Bondi who, first as government-appointed administrator and later as official CEO, shed the group's non-core activities, cut foreign activities and reduced staff.
The court, however, found that the means used by Parmalat and Lactalis to give information on the offer, "including those on the Web", were sufficient for shareholders to draw their own conclusions on whether or not to sell their stock.
The decision by the Parmalat board, on the other hand, was based on the fact that the close to 2.60 euros per share offered by the French group was not a "fair" price and reflected only the stock's current market value without offering a premium to those selling their shares.
The board's action had been expected given that the 2.60 euros offered by Lactalis was below the 2.80 euros it paid to three funds in March for a 15.3% stake in Parmalat, which allowed the French group to acquire a total of 29% in the dairy and foods giant.
The board's decision, however, is not binding and shareholders are free to sell.
Italy's stock market watchdog Consob on Friday gave its green light to the Lactalis bid which will run from May 23 to July 8.
The approval came despite a probe opened by Italian judicial authorities into possible insider trading and share-rigging regarding Lactalis' acquisition of the 15.3% of Parmalat in March. Lactalis itself has not been implicated in the probe and the French dairy giant has stressed that its purchase of the Parmalat stake had been "transparent" and that it was at the "complete disposal" of investigators.
In a statement issued last week, Lactalis said it was "certain of the total correctness and transparency of the operations of purchasing shares in Parmalat Spa,".
By taking over Parmalat, Lactalis would create a dairy giant with an annual turnover of some 14 billion euros and result in major cost savings due to the overlap of the two group's activities in Europe.
Lactalis had indicated that it may merge into Parmalat its milk activities in France and Spain, maintaining the Italian company's name and brand.
Parmalat was declared bankrupt in December 2003 after it emerged that four billion euros it supposedly held in an offshore Bank of America account did not in fact exist.
The case then snowballed, eventually leading to Parmalat's collapse amid debts of some 14.5 billion euros and a fraud scandal which rocked the Italian financial world.
Investigators found that from 1990 until 2002 Parmalat lost money every year except one but nonetheless reported uninterrupted profits and routinely forged documents in order to deceive banks and regulators.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission called the case ''one of the largest and most brazen corporate financial frauds in history''. Parmalat's bankruptcy - dubbed 'Europe's Enron' - left more than 150,000 investors with virtually worthless bonds.
Parmalat has since been put back on its feet by corporate turnaround expert Enrico Bondi who, first as government-appointed administrator and later as official CEO, shed the group's non-core activities, cut foreign activities and reduced staff.
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