Following the surprise announcement on New Year's Day that entrepreneur Domenico Reviglio had moved into the frame to purchase Bertone Group, first details of his bid have been revealed.

Following the surprise announcement on New Year's Day that entrepreneur Domenico Reviglio had moved into the frame to purchase Bertone Group, first details of his bid plans have been revealed.

Reviglio has told the press today that he has the funds available as well as an industrial plan in place to restart operations at Bertone. He will outline the full plan next week. However the 49 year old says expects to retain all 1,300 workers at the firm and will need less than a year to put his plans into action and end the need for state aid to pay the workers. Around 200 staff will return to work this year.

The new industrial turnaround plan will be financed by a personal foundation, the Keiber group, which comprises of technology and engineering companies, and from a group of friends. With many years of experience in the automotive industry, he also says that he has underwriting in place from a bank. The Turinese businessman is best known from Gruppo Prototipo the testing and certification firm that counts Fiat Group as its major client.

Until two days ago it was widely believed that former Telecom Italia President Gianmario Rossignolo was in the final stages of wrapping up a deal that would have been finalised on 12th January. Against this unfolding scenario the Italian government agreed to extend the worker unemployment scheme for a further two months; it had been due to expire on 31st December 2007 after running for the mandatory two year period. The scheme covers all the firm's 1,300 employees.

The statement by Lili Bertone that she had signed a preliminary agreement with Reviglio on 1st January shattered months of painstaking negotiations that has involved government and local authority representatives as well as the unions. Lili Bertone's agreement is expected to cover her 60 percent shareholding. Daughter Barbara meanwhile owns 5 pct while a group of cousins own the remaining 35 pct.

Meanwhile the local authorities have expressed surprise with the turn of events. Paolo Peveraro, Vice-President of the Piedmonte Regional Committee told La Stampa newspaper that the compensation programme had only been extended "to allow the company to reorganize the resumption of the industrial production". A 'perplexed' Peverano, who was due to meet Lili Bertone yesterday before she cancelled the appointment, told the paper that the compensation scheme, which will cost between 1.2 and 1.5 million euros a month, would be reviewed. He has written to Bertone demanding a meeting for Friday morning at which the scheme, which was put in place in Rome on 28th December, will be finalised. Another member of the regional authority involved in the negotiations, assessor Teresa Angela Migliasso said, "our objective is to see the seriousness of the industrial plan in order to safeguard the jobs of 1,300 people."

The unions have also expressed concern at the developments. They have always favoured the court bankruptcy proceedings as offering the best route forward for the company. The court proceedings were due to start in mid December, but were postponed until 24th January, to allow further time for Gianmario Rossignolo's rescue plan, which called for the production of three luxury models including an SUV and coupé-convertible.