MILAN (Reuters) – Blackstone Group has requested a court in New York to merge two lawsuits related to a disputed property sale in Italy, while seeking damages for more than $600 million, according to a filing seen by Reuters.
The dispute concerns the sale of the headquarters of Italian publisher RCS.
The publisher of influential daily Corriere della Sera launched arbitration proceedings in late 2018 to nullify the 2013 sale of its historic headquarters in central Milan to Blackstone, saying the U.S. investment firm had paid too low a price at a time when RCS faced financial difficulties.
In May, a Milan arbitral tribunal ruled in favour of Blackstone, rejecting all claims advanced by the Italian publisher.
(Reporting by Valentina Za, writing by Maria Pia Quaglia; editing by Agnieszka Flak)