International law firm Simmons & Simmons has supported financial intermediary Zenith Service S.p.A. in the implementation of an innovative tokenised securitisation – the first of its kind in the Italian market.
Mirrored against a traditional transaction, the novel arrangement involved the sale of portfolios of trade receivables – groups of unpaid amounts owed to the business – that have been accumulated by Zenith.
Under the deal, the trade receivables have been sold by Zenith as a financial asset to 2023 Blockchain Vision S.r.l – a special entity set up under Italian law (Law No. 130 of April 20, 1999) – which will issue it as partly-paid asset backed securities (ABS), with a maximum value of €50 million.
The securitisation was carried out in "proof of concept," using blockchain technology through the public platform "Algorand". Through the use of smart contracts – executed on the blockchain – the portfolios, associated payments and issuance of tokens replicating the ABSs, will be digitised.
The Simmons team provided legal assistance in structuring the transaction and drafting all related contracts, and was led by partner Simone Lucatello, supported by of counsel Ugo Malvagna and associates Marcello Rivoir and Veronica Ciardo.
Simone Lucatello commented "We are very pleased to have actively contributed to the realisation of this innovative transaction, providing our experience in securitisation and blockchain digital regulation. We are confident that the simplification brought by blockchain technology will find more and more frequent application to securitisation transactions."
