The IT Holding fashion group has filed for bankruptcy protection for one of its key subsidiaries in order to restructure and seek new funding.
The announcement was made at the Milan stock exchange which has indefinitely suspended all trading of the company's shares.
The move came after the group, which owns the Gianfranco Ferre' fashion label, failed to find funding to pay for credit owed by its main production and licensing unit Ittierre.
IT Holding includes a number of companies which produce and distribute ready-to-wear fashion collections and accessory lines. Distribution is made through a chain of stores it owns as well as through independent retailers.
Aside from Ferre' it also owns the Malo and Exte' brands and holds licenses to produce Versace Jeans Couture, Versace Sport, Just Cavalli, C'N'C costume National and Galliano.
IT Holding is owned by businessman Tonino Perna but all the company's stock has been given as collateral to the Efibanca bank.
The group employs over 1,800 people, many of them in the central Italian region of Molise.
In 2007 it had earnings of 637 million euros but last year posted a net loss of over ten million euros for the first ten months of the year, due to an estimated 8% drop in sales brought on by the global economic slowdown.
