Crisis-hit Italian food group Parmalat will present a much-awaited recovery plan within days, Industry Minister Antonio Marzano, who is due to evaluate the plan, said on Saturday.
Parmalat filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors and was declared insolvent in December after it had unveiled a four-billion-euro gap in its accounts. Its debts have since been revealed to be 14.5 billion euros.
Parmalat's emergency administrator Enrico Bondi was charged with preparing a rescue plan for what was once Italy's eighth biggest industrial group.
"We met with Bondi several times, the plan is being reworked," Marzano on the sidelines of an exhibition opening.
"The first draft has already been presented and I believe that new, more advanced proposals will be presented to me in the next few days," he said.
Marzano reiterated his view that Parmalat, which had developed a web of operating and financial units from Brazil to Australia, should focus on its core food business and sell off non-core activities.
Under new, fast-track bankruptcy protection rules, adopted in Italy in December as the Parmalat crisis was unfolding, a company goes into standard bankruptcy protection and eventual liquidation if the Industry Ministry does not approve its restructuring plan.

Copyright Reuters, 2004

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