Fininvest

Fininvest
Native name
Finanziaria d'investimento Fininvest S.p.A.
Società per azioni
Industry Financial services
Founded 1978 (1978)
Founder Silvio Berlusconi
Headquarters
  • Rome, Italy (legal)
  • Milan, Italy (de facto)
Key people
Services Holding company
Profit
  • Increase €221 million (2015 company)
  • Decrease (€0.1 million) (2015 Group)
Total assets
  • Decrease €2.414 billion (2015 company)
  • Decrease €10.787 billion (2015 Group)
Total equity
  • Increase €2.062 billion (2015 company)
  • Increase €2.698 billion (2015 Group)
Owner Berlusconi family
Subsidiaries
Website www.fininvest.it
Footnotes / references
source;[3][4][5] Mediaset was consolidated as Fininvest had the controlling stake in the number of directors in the board

Finanziaria d'investimento Fininvest S.p.A. known as just Fininvest S.p.A. is an Italian holding company controlled by the Berlusconi family and managed by Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter Marina Berlusconi.

Structure

The Fininvest group is composed of a number of companies, such as Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (one of Italy's leading publishing companies), Teatro Manzoni (a theater in Milan), Alba Servizi Aerotrasporti (a private jet company) and Fininvest Gestione Servizi.

Fininvest is the largest shareholder of Mediaset, which is currently the biggest private entertainment competitor in Italy, owning three channels in Italy (Canale 5, Italia 1, Rete 4), two in Spain, the film production company Medusa Film, a digital TV broadcasting network, and many other companies related to TV broadcasting. The deal to sell Mediaset Premium was collapsed in 2016.

Fininvest's voting rights on Mediolanum S.p.A. was capped at 9.9999% by Italian Insurance Supervisory Authority despite owning about 36% share capital of the financial conglomerate;[6] the company revered merger with subsidiary Banca Mediolanum in 2015. Fininvest had a shareholders' pact with Ennio Doris (the pact only bind to 25.5% share each, excess amount of share was not bind),[7] the largest shareholder of Banca Mediolanum, making the pact had an absolute majority in the bank for 51% share capital.

On 5 August 2016 Fininvest signed a preliminary agreement to sell 99.93% stake of A.C. Milan to a Chinese private equity fund Sino-Europe Sports.[8]

Other investments

Fininvest owned 0.99% stake in Mediobanca, and was part of the shareholders' pact that owned about 31% stake in the bank in total.[9]

Controversies

The Berlusconi family does not control the company directly. Instead, its shares are owned by 38 separate companies, all named 'Holding Italiana' followed by a number (1-38), most of which are in turn controlled by Berlusconi. These 'Holding Italiane' have repeatedly come under investigation by the police for various financial and accounting irregularities, slush funds and money-laundering. All of them were created at the end of the 1970s by covert associates of Berlusconi's and received significant investments (several hundreds of millions of euros at today's value) from still unknown sources. Some of their liquidity was even deposited in cash. Much of the documentation of that time relative to the early financial and banking operations of these companies has been lost, in one case in a fire.

A report on those matters was commissioned by the general Dipartimento Investigativo Anti-Mafia (Bureau of Anti-Mafia Investigation) of Palermo in the 1990s from a finance expert working at the Bank of Italy, Francesco Giuffrida, to supplement the evidence in a tentative case against Berlusconi and associates for their alleged involvement with the Sicilian Mafia. In 1998 the case was temporarily shelved because of lack of sufficient evidence to go to trial.

References

  1. "Azionisti rilevanti di MEDIASET SPA". CONSOB. 27 October 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  2. http://www.fininvest.it/en/group/company_structure
  3. 2015 bilancio purchased from Registro Imprese of CCIAA on 24 September 2016. Available to download for 5-year by using document id: 222694537 and passcode: SYCHF9 (in Italian)
  4. 2015 Consolidated Financial Statements at 31 December 2015, purchased on 27 September 2016 (in Italian)
  5. "Annual Report 2015". Fininvest. 2016 [circa]. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  6. "COMUNICATO STAMPA CONGIUNTO" (PDF) (in Italian). Fin.Prog.Italia S.A.p.A. di Ennio Doris & C. / Fininvest. 2 April 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  7. "Estratto di patti parasociali ai sensi dell'art. 122 del d.lgs. 24.2.1998, n. 58 e dell'art. 129 Regolamento Consob del 14 maggio 1999, n. 11971" (PDF) (in Italian). Banca Mediolanum. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  8. "Comunicato Stampa – Milan: Fininvest firma preliminare di vendita con cordata cinese" [Press Release – Milan: Fininvest signs preliminary selling agreement with Chinese group of investors] (PDF). fininvest.it (in Italian). Fininvest. 5 August 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  9. "Accordo per la partecipazione al capitale di Mediobanca" (in Italian). Mediobanca. 5 July 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
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