Opzione put e patto leonino

The thesis aims to discuss the lawful inclusion of a fixed price put option provision within the execution of a shareholders agreement between one or more members of a given company, which need to be recapitalized, and an investor, usually qualified as a venture capitalist, who undertakes an equity investment in the company by acquiring a minority interest. In other words, as a result of the exercise of the right to sell his minority stakes, the investor has the power to force the purchase of his equity interest at a predefined price, which, according to the prevailing doctrine, may violate the prohibition to exclude one or more member of a company from the profit or/and the losses accrued by the same. However, the stakeholders' individual right to share the operating results of their company should be counterbalanced with the general interest linked to the development of the company's business, seen as the undertaking activity. In that light, the put option agreement needs to be deemed legally binding.

Il presente lavoro di tesi si propone di prendere voce nel dibattuto giurisprudenziale e dottrinale sui presupposti di applicabilità del divieto di patto leonino, alla luce degli sviluppi interpretativi contenuti nella recente pronuncia della Corte di Cassazione datata 4 luglio 2018, n. 17498, quale tema riportato all'attenzione degli interpreti in questi ultimi anni a seguito della valutazioni sulla liceità dell'opzione di vendita a prezzo fisso contenuta in un patto parasociale.