Clear Leisure's request to block Mediapolis land sale rejected

Italian-focused investment firm Clear Leisure told investors on Thursday that a judge of in the town of Ivrea has ruled against the company's appeal to reject the auction of 497,884 square metres of land owned by Mediapolis.

The AIM-listed firm now has 15 days to challenge the judge's decision by filing a further appeal. Clear Leisure said it will consult with its Italian legal advisers to decide the best course of action and issue a further update in due course.

Clear Leisure, which holds an unsecured creditor position of €8.21m in Mediapolis, contends that is the beneficiary of a first charge on the land up to an amount of €2.68m. The Court appointed surveyor had assigned a valuation of €3.86m to the land.

However, the auctioneer has fixed a base price for the auction of €2.61m, with minimum offers being accepted of no less than 75% of the base price.

Clear Leisure was awarded first refusal on the block of land owned by Mediapolis, which was wound up earlier this year, leaving millions in debts to creditors.

The firm hoped the sale of Mediapolis' land, on which it intended to build a theme park, would help it recover as much as €2.68m of the €8.21m of debt from the defunct Italian investment firm.

As of 0830 BST, Clear Leisure shares had tumbled 12.52% to 0.68p.