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Calisto Tanzi, the founder of Parmalat who is under arrest for a multi-billion-euro scandal, has agreed to hand over his shares in the Italian food firm to its newly appointed administrator, a lawyer for Tanzi said on Saturday.

"He has put at the disposition (of the extraordinary administration) procedure some of his personal assets..., all his shares in Parmalat," Michele Ributti told reporters outside Milan's San Vittore jail where Tanzi is being held.

The Tanzi family's Coloniale Spa firm has just over 50 percent of the shares in Parmalat Finanziaria, the holding company which controls the Parmalat group.

"I think it's a very strong signal, it should spark a single procedure for the group which will help to value the group's assets," Fabio Belloni, another of Tanzi's lawyers, said.

He said tourism assets belonging to Coloniale, including tourism and holiday village company Parmatour, would also be handed over. The lawyers said they had proposed starting discussions on how the handover should be carried out.

He has said there could be a hole of eight billion euros ($10 billion) in the firm's accounts and admitted siphoning off 500 million euros into family firms.

Copyright Reuters, 2004


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