Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister, is lifeless and, as a key participant within the nation's ruling coalition till his passing, there may be a lot debate over what it means for Italian politics.
Yet Mr Berlusconi's profession in politics solely got here after his success in commerce - and much more fascinating is the query of what occurs to his enterprise empire.
Although trophy property similar to AC Milan - offloaded to a Chinese buyer in 2017 - have lengthy since been offered, Mr Berlusconi nonetheless owned a major variety of companies on the time of his passing, the futures of which at the moment are the topic of a lot hypothesis.
Mr Berlusconi's major holding firm, Fininvest, is chaired by his eldest youngster, Marina, 56, whereas its administrators embody Pier Silvio, 54, Marina's brother.
Also on its board are Barbara, 38, and Luigi, 34, Mr Berlusconi's third and fifth kids from his second marriage. Mr Berlusconi's fourth youngster, Eleonora, 36, is the one one not on the board.
Fininvest, which employs greater than 20,000 individuals worldwide, reported gross sales of €3.8bn in 2021 and earnings earlier than curiosity and taxation of €373.8m.
A non-public firm, it was 61.3% owned by Mr Berlusconi, with Marina and Pier Silvio proudly owning 7.65% every. Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi every personal 7.14% shareholdings. The remaining 2.06% shareholding is owned by Fininvest itself.
An empire up for grabs
No one is aware of, at current, what's going to occur to Mr Berlusconi's stake in Fininvest.
The expectation has been that it will be divided equally between the 5 kids however the Italian media has speculated that Marta Fascina, Mr Berlusconi's companion on the time of his dying and who he latterly known as his spouse, may have bequeathed a few of his shareholding.
Either manner, Marina, a notoriously although negotiator who labored alongside her father for a few years and who has chaired Fininvest since 2005, is predicted to guide the empire and name the pictures following her father's passing.
Fininvest's most dear asset, surprisingly, will not be within the media business during which Mr Berlusconi initially made his fortune however is a 30% stake in Mediolanum, the banking and monetary providers mix. It is at present price €1.83bn.
But the perfect recognized of Fininvest's property is MFE, Media for Europe, which is listed on the Milan inventory change and which is 48.6% owned by Fininvest.
The basis of Mr Berlusconi's wealth, it was beforehand named Mediaset and was Italy's first and largest business broadcaster.
It owns 13 TV channels within the nation, together with Canale 5, Italia 1 and Cartoonito, in addition to three Italian radio stations and 5 TV channels in Spain. With a inventory market valuation of €1.66bn, it additionally owns a 26.58% stake in ProSiebenSat 1, the German TV broadcaster.
That stake, on the present worth, is price €531.6m - placing an implied valuation of simply €1.128billion on all of MFE's different media pursuits in Italy and Spain.
There will naturally be hypothesis as to what occurs to Fininvest's stake in MFE, whose shares initially rose by 10% on news of Mr Berlusconi's dying.
That determination is more likely to be made by Pier Silvio, MFE's chief govt and Marina, who sits on its board.
The huge query for them is whether or not Fininvest ought to retain its stake in MFE or conclude that the enterprise is best off, within the face of intensifying competitors, throwing in its lot with one other European broadcaster.
Mr Berlusconi was a believer in toughing it out however his kids might produce other concepts.
Central to the controversy over MFE will likely be its second largest shareholder Vivendi, the €8.6bn French media big, whose property embody the video video games writer Gameloft, the movie maker Canal+, the promoting and public relations firm Havas and a shareholding in Universal Music Group.
Vivendi, which owns 23.6% of MFE, first acquired a stake within the previous Mediaset in December 2016 however the pair have been subsequently concerned in authorized disputes that remained unsettled till May 2021. Under the settlement reached then, Vivendi might not elevate its stake in MFE till 2026.
Fininvest's subsequent largest asset is Mondadori, Italy's largest e book and journal writer, during which it owns a 53.3% stake.
At Mondadori's present inventory market valuation of €517.7m, that is price €275.9m. Mondadori has a 24.8% share of Italy's e book publishing market, 21.2% of its instructional publishing market and 24.2% of its journal publishing market.
It can be the third largest participant within the French journal publishing market and owns Italy's largest chain of bookshops. Chaired by Marina, it loved gross sales of €903m in 2022 and earnings of €52m, representing its greatest monetary efficiency in 15 years.
Other Fininvest property embody the historic Milan theatre Teatro Manzoni, rescued by Mr Berlusconi in 1978 when it was liable to being transformed right into a grocery store and AC Monza, a soccer membership primarily based within the city of Arcore close to the tycoon's villa.
Having languished within the decrease reaches of Italian soccer for many of this century, throughout which it has been plagued with monetary uncertainty, it was acquired by Mr Berlusconi in 2018 when it was within the third tier of Italian soccer. It was promoted to Serie A, the primary tier, for the primary time in its historical past on the finish of the 2021-22 season.
Mystery property property
Apart from Fininvest, Mr Berlusconi owned one other holding firm, Dolcedrago, which contained a lot of his business property property. The worth of those is unknowable.
There have been additionally a clutch of residential property property that he owned straight, mainly a variety of villas.
These embody his residence in Arcore and different villas in - amongst different areas - the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa and on Lake Maggiore.
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There was additionally a villa in Rome, as soon as owned by the legendary movie director Franco Zeffirelli, in addition to residences in different playgrounds of the wealthy similar to Cannes in France and Antigua within the West indies. Other property included 5 flats and two garages in Milan.
The exact variety of property property Mr Berlusconi owned, although, stays unknown.
There have been additionally different accoutrements of wealth, together with helicopters, speedboats, a mega-yacht and a few movie property, in addition to minority shareholdings in two extra banks - Banca Popolare di Napoli and Banca Popolare di Sondrio - and the sports activities firm Forza 5.
With Italian media describing Mr Berlusconi's monetary affairs as "poorly accounted", figuring out which property will go to inheritor who might take many months, if not years.
The deterioration of prospects for conventional media property means Mr Berlusconi's whole wealth on the time of his passing might properly fall wanting the €7bn or in order that has been calculated by the influential enterprise publication Forbes.
But one factor is for certain. His property have been price significantly greater than the taxable worth of €17.7m declared to the Italian parliament in 2021.
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