MILAN (Reuters) - An Italian prosecutor has presented a bankruptcy request against information technology and e-commerce group CHL <CHL.MI>, the company said, adding it was notified on Dec. 9.
The board has met to decide how to protect the company against the Florence prosecutor's action, which it considers "groundless", CHL said late on Thursday in a statement.
Under Italian civil law a judge will now assess the prosecutor's request and decide whether to launch a bankruptcy procedure against the company.
Italy's market watchdog Consob last week temporarily suspended trading in CHL shares after finding alleged irregularities and possible market abuse.
Consob said the alleged irregularities related to information about the company's economic and financial situation that CHL's top management had provided to investors.
Listed in 2000 just before the dot-com bubble burst, CHL is a relative minnow on the Milan bourse, with a market capitalization of just 6.8 million euros ($7.5 million).
CHL said on Thursday it would press ahead with plans to buy Polish-based Airtime Sp.Zo.o, Romanian-based Prime Exchange Technologies and Irish-based Rubelite, though it added it was negotiating changes to the initial agreements with its counterparts.
A shareholder meeting is scheduled for Dec. 20 to approve a 6.7 million euro capital increase to complete the acquisitions.
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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