2023-06-14 07:16:41
To whom will return the personal and industrial fortune of Silvio Berlusconi ? Shaken by the death of its founder, this economic empire faces a period of uncertainty. Investors thus rushed to the title of its MediaForEurope television group, which soared on Tuesday by more than 13% on the Milan Stock Exchange. The market is indeed betting on a sale of the group bringing lucrative gains or a merger.
Fininvest, the holding company of the Berlusconi family, however tried to cut short the rumors by assuring that its “activities would continue in a line of absolute continuity in all respects”. But, the succession of the third fortune of theItaly with assets valued by Forbes at 6.4 billion euros, looks complex, with possible disputes between his heirs, even if it seems to have been well put together by the patriarch.
A “planned upstream” transition
“His empire will survive without Silvio Berlusconi because he managed to ensure a transition between generations that was planned upstream,” said Andrea Colli, professor of business history at Bocconi University in Milan. Entering political life in the early 1990s, “it’s been a long time since Silvio Berlusconi no longer intervened directly in the management of the group”.
On the front line now, her 56-year-old daughter Marina, president of Fininvest since 2005 and Mondadori editions since 2003, nicknamed the “tsarina” or the “financial brain” of the Berlusconi clan, “took over from her father, gradually acquiring areas of freedom and independence that have enabled it to become a point of reference for the group”, analyzes Andrea Colli. The magazine Forbes even listed the former prime minister’s eldest daughter among the most powerful women in the world.
“No risk of weakening the empire”
A transition that promises to be successful, also judges Giuseppe Di Taranto, professor emeritus of economic history at Luiss University in Rome. According to him, “there is no risk of weakening the Berlusconi empire, which on the contrary will come out stronger, because his children have proven that they are very good managers”. He thus refers to Marina and her brother Pier Silvio Berlusconi, 54, who took control of Mediaset in 2015. Born from the first marriage of Silvio Berlusconi, they each hold 7.65% of Fininvest. The other three children, Luigi, Eleonora and Barbara, from a second marriage, together own 21.42%.
“Marina will probably become number one in the group and hold the majority with Pier Silvio. I don’t think there will be any quarrels in the family, which is very united,” judge Giuseppe Di Taranto. Companion of Silvio Berlusconi since 2020, Marta Fascina, 33, former model and deputy of his party Forza Italia, might she sow discord? “No”, slice Andrea Colli, because following initial tensions with the children, “they found a modus vivendi”.
Businesses, villas, yachts and even a football club
The media magnate, who died at the age of 86, controlled 61.21% of Fininvest, a share which will now have to be distributed among his heirs, once the will has been opened. The Berlusconi galaxy includes, in addition to Mondadori, controlled at 53.3%, another family jewel, the Mediolanum bank of which Fininvest owns 30.1%. Added to this are the Medusa film production company, numerous luxury villas and yachts, and the Monza football club.
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