The board of one of Italy’s biggest property companies is set to hold an emergency meeting on Monday after a court asked it to respond to a prosecutor’s request that it be declared bankrupt.

Risanamento, controlled by the property tycoon Luigi Zunino, is struggling to manage some €2.8bn ($3.9bn) in net debt. A slump in the Italian property market due to the credit crisis has left its most high-profile project – a huge housing and office complex on the outskirts of Milan – unfinished.