The Italian Sea Group: Court Redefines Interim Protective Measures, Revokes Protection for Owners and Guarantors While Confirming Safeguards for Projects to Be Completed

The Italian Sea Group continues to face an extremely delicate phase in its industrial and financial restructuring. For several weeks, updates on the company’s crisis proceedings have followed one another almost daily, and the latest ruling issued by the Florence Court represents another step in the complex process leading to the definition of the restructuring plan.

The ruling concerns the interim protective measures adopted under Article 44 of the Italian Code of Business Crisis and Insolvency, significantly revising the framework established by the Court on 6 July. At that stage, the judges had granted TISG a series of temporary protections designed to prevent customers and guarantors from taking actions that could jeopardise the company’s restructuring efforts while the plan was being prepared.

Under the new decision, those protections have been lifted. Yacht owners are once again entitled to exercise the rights provided for under their respective contracts, including, where contractually permitted, seeking termination of the agreement or pursuing other contractual remedies. At the same time, the restrictions preventing the enforcement of performance bonds and other guarantees issued in connection with the projects have also been removed. In practical terms, where the contractual conditions are met, beneficiaries may once again call on those guarantees and seek payment from the entities that issued them.

According to the company, the Court’s decision reflects the evolution of the restructuring plan itself. The judges considered that the protective measures granted in early July were justified when the objective was to preserve the entire order book. The revised plan, however, no longer envisages completing all projects currently under construction, but instead focuses only on those considered economically sustainable and capable of generating value. With that underlying assumption having changed, the Court found that there were no longer sufficient grounds to maintain broad protection against claims by yacht owners.

At the same time, the Court has maintained targeted protection for the strategic suppliers involved in the projects that TISG intends to complete. The company has been authorised to pay those suppliers directly, even where the related receivables have been assigned to factoring companies, at least until agreements are reached with those financial institutions. The aim is to ensure that shipyard operations and the supply chain continue without disruption due to liquidity constraints, allowing construction to proceed on the yachts that remain part of the restructuring plan.

From an industrial perspective, the ruling confirms a strategic shift that had already emerged in recent weeks. Rather than attempting to preserve every project in the order book, the company is now focusing on a selected number of contracts regarded as financially sustainable within the future restructuring plan. This marks a clearer definition of the strategy TISG intends to pursue in its recovery process.

In its statement, The Italian Sea Group also emphasises that the Court’s latest decision does not affect the broader protective measures confirmed on 6 July, which remain fully in force. The company further reiterates that its restructuring plan will continue along the guidelines already announced, without any substantial changes to the chosen approach.

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