Those who were hoping for “Succession”-style infighting following Silvio Berlusconi’s death may be disappointed.
The will of Italy’s media-mogul and former prime minister – who died on June 12 at age 86 – was partly made public on Thursday. What emerged is that his eldest children, Marina and Pier Silvio, will together continue to control his business empire estimated to be worth around $6.8 billion, according to Forbes.
But, according to a statement issued by his five chilren, “No shareholder will exercise overall individual indirect control of Fininvest SpA previously exercised by their father.” Fininvest is the Berlusconi family holding company.
Marina and Pier Silvio Berlusconi — who both already held chief executive roles respectively in Fininvest and in Berlusconi’s MFE-MediaForEurope, aka Mediaset TV business – will now hold equal stakes jointly amounting to a roughly 53% majority stake in the Fininvest family holding. Fininvest also owns publisher Mondadori; vast luxury real estate properties in Milan, Rome and Sardinia; Italian Serie A soccer club AC Monza and a large stake in the Banca Mediolanum asset management bank.
Meanwhile, at a Mediaset upfront presentation in Milan on Tuesday, Pier Silvio strongly denied mounting speculation that after his father’s death MFE/Mediaset would be put up for sale. “The answer to the question of whether as a family we ever discussed selling Mediaset is ‘no’,” Berlusconi told reporters.
“What interests us is pressing ahead with a European industrial project which we believe in, namely a combination of European broadcasters,” he added.
Pier Silvio Berlusconi has been seeking to create a pan-European group (as reflected in the company’s rebranding) and has built a stake of roughly 30% in German media giant ProSiebenSat.1, which recently allowed him to obtain a seat on the rival group’s supervisory board.
Fininvest holds 48.5% of shares in MFE.
