Melia International Nv

Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti has quietly moved to dismantle the European holding company through which he controls the vast majority of shares in MGM-Pathe Communications Co. The step reflects a restructuring of the complex European holdings that Parretti used in acquiring MGM/UA Communications Co. for $1.3 billion last year. A Parretti spokesman said the financier's control over the holdings wouldn't be increased or diminished by the restructuring.

Parretti Appeal Rejected: An Amsterdam court rejected Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti's bid to be reinstated as a member of Melia International's management board. Melia removed Parretti on grounds that he had violated company rules. Parretti used Melia as a vehicle for the $1.3-billion purchase of MGM/UA Communications Co. last year. The movie company has since been taken over by its chief lender, France's Credit Lyonnais.

Giancarlo Parretti's tenure as chief executive of MGM-Pathe Communications Co. may have ended with his forced resignation last week, but new details of his bizarre business dealings continue to surface even as the beleaguered movie studio struggles for survival.

Giancarlo Parretti's tenure as chief executive of MGM-Pathe Communications Co. may have ended with his forced resignation last week, but new details of his bizarre business dealings continue to surface even as the beleaguered movie studio struggles for survival.

Parretti Appeal Rejected: An Amsterdam court rejected Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti's bid to be reinstated as a member of Melia International's management board. Melia removed Parretti on grounds that he had violated company rules. Parretti used Melia as a vehicle for the $1.3-billion purchase of MGM/UA Communications Co. last year. The movie company has since been taken over by its chief lender, France's Credit Lyonnais.

In the frantic final days leading up to his acquisition of MGM/UA Communications Corp., Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti signed an agreement trading 10 million shares of studio stock he didn't yet own for an insurance bond that allowed him to close the deal, according to documents filed here in support of a lawsuit. Parretti assigned the MGM/UA shares to Cook Islands-based Century Insurance Ltd. on Oct.

A tiny Pacific Island insurance company claims to own as much as 35% of MGM-Pathe Communications Co., in a bizarre court fight over Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti's $1.4-billion acquisition of MGM last year. The case was filed Jan. 15 in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands, by Century Insurance Ltd. against Credit Lyonnais, the European banking giant that helped finance the acquisition. Century operates from Brisbane, Australia, but is incorporated in the Cook Islands.

Cannon Group will be blended into a collection of European tourism, banking, hotel and real estate interests under a proposed reorganization unveiled Tuesday. The conglomerate would include affiliates of Interpart S.A. of Luxembourg, which owns 40% of Cannon. Since last June, Interpart has made huge cash infusions in the battered Los Angeles movie producer and theater owner. The new entity is to be called Cannon-Melia Group.

Giancarlo Parretti, the fast-rising Hollywood movie mogul who has admitted that he rarely watches films himself, underscored the point at the Cannes Film Festival a couple of years ago. Encountering actor-director Clint Eastwood and his agent at a party, Parretti said: "Mr. Eastwood, I've always admired your work." The problem was that he was speaking to the agent. Those types of blunders have helped shape Parretti's reputation as a consummate outsider.

Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti has quietly moved to dismantle the European holding company through which he controls the vast majority of shares in MGM-Pathe Communications Co. The step reflects a restructuring of the complex European holdings that Parretti used in acquiring MGM/UA Communications Co. for $1.3 billion last year. A Parretti spokesman said the financier's control over the holdings wouldn't be increased or diminished by the restructuring.