With the death on June 12 of Silvio Berlusconi, a battle opens on the other side of the Alps for the political legacy of the boss and founder of Forza Italia, but also for the financial legacy of the one who, at 86, still occupied 3rd place on the podium of Italian fortunes. At the center of all attention: Fininvest, the heart of the machine, launched by the Milanese at the end of the 1970s and which over the decades has become a heavyweight in the media and communication sector, in Italy and abroad. of the. Today, the Biscione holding still accounts for nearly 3 billion euros in assets, spread across three companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange.
Under the Fininvest flag, we thus find Mediaset, flagship of TV and radio recently renamed MediaForEurope (MEF), Mondadori, a major player in the field of publishing in the Peninsula, and finally shares, up to 30% , in the Mediolanum bank, specializing in savings management. In addition to this pretty Berlusconian bonanza, there are also a number of real estate interests, including a herd of luxurious villas that have made the reputation of the “Cav”, the Manzoni theater in Milan and a handful of private jets and helicopters. . Without forgetting the keys of AC Monza, a mid-table team in the Italian Serie A. A liner on which Silvio Berlusconi will have kept his hands firmly hung until the end.
With the disappearance of the pater familias, the Italian media have already taken out the calculators in order to answer a major financial puzzle: how to distribute the loot of the former Prime Minister? Equal shares between each child, making the passage of the Lario branch the future majority shareholders of the holding company? What about Marta Fascina, Cav’s last companion – 54 years her junior – after their symbolic union in March 2022? Up to a third of the tycoon’s assets could indeed go to the Calabrian deputy, thus reshuffling the cards in the power games within the Milanese company.
Last April, when Silvio Berlusconi was admitted to intensive care at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, the markets were not observing a truce. MediaForEurope’s share price had jumped, a sign for financial experts that the Cavaliere’s precarious state of health opened up new scenarios for the future of the media group. A partial takeover offer, called “friendly”, carried by the Vivendi group of Vincent Bolloré (second shareholder of MFE), would be in the pipeline, even advanced some media already. Not without the approval of the heirs, we warned in the columns of the Giornale, the Berlusconian daily recently sold to a deputy of the League of Salvini. “Without an agreement with the Berlusconi family, none of the group’s assets can become the object of discord or the greed of outside investors”, assured the Italian media. The financial battle of the post-Cavaliere era has only just begun.
