Parmalat is one of Italy's best known brand names and has nearly 35,000 employees in 30 countries with annual revenue of more than $9.3 billion. Parmalat also distributes under the Aylesbury, Bonnita, Pure Joy, and Santal brand among others.

Parmalat's board gave chairman and chief executive Enrico Bondi the authority to ask judges to give him time to come up with a plan of action for the company before considering any legal proceedings. Biondi is a turnaround specialist who was brought in to run the firm earlier this week.

Mr Bondi replaced Calisto Tanzi, who had run the company since founding it in 1961 as a maker of salami.The Parma-based Parmalat,  produces and sells milk, yoghurt, fruit juice, cheese, tomato based items, bakery goods and other food products in Europe, Australia, the US, Brazil, South Africa, and around the world. 70% of Parmalat brands are market leaders in their own categories.

Parmalat claims to have debts of about 6bn euros, with assets of more than 4bn euros. But the company's tortuous international structure, the result of rapid expansion, makes it difficult for analysts to assess whether these figures are realistic.

Some analysts doubted whether the firm would be able to pull itself out of the mire. "It is difficult to see how Parmalat can keep going after this clear indication of extensive financial irregularity," ABN Amro analyst Claire McGuckin wrote in a research note. Many of Italy's biggest banks are exposed to Parmalat, leading to fears of a system-wide meltdown if the company were to collapse.

The €4bn (£2.8bn) hole in Parmalat accounts is four times as much as was involved in the scandal that rocked the Dutch retailer Ahold earlier this year.

Italian news reports said prosecutors in Milan had searched the offices of the Parmalat's auditors, Deloitte, to obtain documents.

Parmalat
http://www.parmalat.net/
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ITALY TO AID TROUBLED FOOD GROUP
Los Angeles Times
From Reuters
December 21, 2003

ROME — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday that his government would save food group Parmalat Finanziaria, which has revealed a $4.9-billion hole in its accounts in a scandal reminiscent of the bankruptcy case of Enron Corp.

As prosecutors launched a fraud investigation, a new emergency management team at the global dairy firm was working on a rescue plan, which an industry source said would include a request for protection from creditors.

Berlusconi told reporters the Economy Ministry was working on plans to "preserve the industrial part of Parmalat which … is part of the country's wealth."

Parmalat is one of Italy's best known brand names and has nearly 35,000 employees in 30 countries with annual revenue of more than $9.3 billion.

But concerns about apparently risky financial investments turned into outright panic Friday when it announced that a document showing that nearly $4.9 billion held by a Cayman Islands unit had been declared false by Bank of America.

Italy to Aid Troubled Food Group
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/
la-fg-italy21dec21,1,3561091.story?coll=la-news-a_section