Will Berlusconi, what is known about the provisions on inheritance

MILAN. It will take a few more days, probably at least a week to learn about the will of Silvio Berlusconi, who passed away at the age of 86 on 12 June. The last wishes of the founder of Mediaset and Forza Italia are kept in the office of the notary Arrigo Roveda. However, no one seems to be in a hurry to know the numbers and quotas, wishes and duties of a historical will. Also because, many observers whisper, those who need to know already know: secret wills are very rare, generally testators leave an informal copy to the beneficiaries. So the children know the fate of the empire, and with them the managers of a lifetime, starting with the faithful custodian of Silvio’s cash register, the accountant Giuseppe Spinelli, the elderly accountant who lives in a modest apartment in Bresso, the first hinterland of Milan, but which has always been inside the secrets of the Knight and his family.

In fact, therefore, the succession has already begun, even if much will remain confidential until the publication of the document which could take place next Monday, according to Corriere’s rumors, and in any case probably (but not necessarily) before the appointment of 29 June, when the assembly of Fininvest will meet, chaired by Marina Berlusconi.

The meeting matters because it will have to renew the board of directors, where all the Berlusconi brothers sit today except Eleonora, the CEO Danilo Pellegrino, Adriano Galliani, Silvio’s faithful manager especially in football activities, Ernesto Mauri, former CEO of Mondadori, and Ernesto Sciascia , another trusted manager. However, Niccolò Ghedini, Cavaliere’s super-lawyer, who passed away in August a year ago, is no longer there. And the assembly will have to take into account the new weights in which the 61% held by Berlusconi through the Italian holding companies Prima, Seconda, Terza and Ottava will be divided between the first’s children – Marina and Pier Silvio, who have 15.30 % through the Italian Quarta and Quinta holdings – and second bed ones – i.e. Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi – which with H14 have 21.41%. Who knows, therefore, that behind the “continuity” ensured at the helm of the commercial television activities and the editorial part, there might not be a reason. The heart of everything is Fininvest, which curiously is based in Rome, in Largo del Nazzareno, just like those “communists” of the Democratic Party. But its engine is Milanese and pulsates in the very central via Paleocapa, a stone’s throw from Castello Sforzesco: it is a neo-Renaissance building that recalls Palazzo Pitti, but it is a mistake, since it is dated 1898. However, it is part of the treasure: 909 thousand euros in value attributed to the area in the balance sheet and 883 thousand for the building. And here is the family safe, the deposit of Berluscon de’ Berlusconi.

Assets for the holding worth 4.9 billion, according to the numbers of a year ago, including real estate and many shareholdings. The highlight is the 41.49% of the shares (but 50% of the voting rights) of Mediaset, today Mfe-MediaforEurope. There is 53.3% of Mondadori and its books, 100% of Monza Calcio (it is not yet known for how long), 48% of the Consorzio Servizi Vigilanza which provides protection to the Berlusconi family, 100% of Fininvest Real Estate and Services, houses and services like Isim Spa. The list continues with the entirety of the Teatro Manzoni, as well as the Luxembourg-based Trefinance, in liquidation, a financial company used in the past to diversify investments, such as the toccata and fugue in the Hopa of the “Po Valley race” led by Emilio Gnutti from Brescia. A conspicuous portfolio, that of Fininvest, which, a year ago, was in charge for 1.47 billion to which 116 million of 30.12% of the goose that laid the golden eggs for the Biscione holding had to be added: Banca Mediolanum, founded with Ennio Doris, who also died at the end of 2021. But this is not the end of Berlusconi’s legacy, which will be the subject of a complex collation, which will have to put together what he left behind and what he gave to his heirs during his lifetime.

The total assets are estimated by Forbes at 6.2 billion euros, number 352 in the world in the world heritage list. There will be endless appraisals, for example, on an extraordinary bequest of works of art of which the Knight was a thirsty buyer. There would be 24,000 works in the catalogue: high-sounding names that only in the Arcore house would include a Ghirlandaio, Tintorettos, a Guido Reni, several Veronese, Titians, Canalettos, some Rubens. A few moderns including Cascella, the friend author of the mausoleum where his ashes rest. And then the boats, put in black and white in the parliamentary annotations: the 40 meters of the Princess VaiVia (the princess in question was the little Marina) then used for a long time by Ennio Doris, the San Maurizio, the Magnum 70. And then house after house . Those who created that “certain discomfort” to the Knight when they invited him to go home. “Having twenty, I wouldn’t know which one to go to…”, he retorted. Now they will also be good for gratifying those who, like their last companion Marta Fascina, are not – barring surprises – among the legitimate heirs.

The main ones such as Villa San Martino in Arcore, bought for only 500 million lire, and the 126 rooms plus 125 hectares of park of Villa Certosa in Porto Rotondo, are in Immobiliare Idra, like Villa Gernetto or the Belvedere, in Brianza. And then villa La Lampara in Cannes, two properties in Antigua, in the Caribbean, villa Blue Horizon in Bermuda. Real estate assets that could exceed 700 million. Berlusconi left a few properties in his name: among them is Villa Campari, on Lake Maggiore, a Trieste bequest from a painter, and Villa Due Palme in Lampedusa. But above all the apartment of the heart: a “civil type home”, read the cold papers, in viale San Gimignano in Milan, the house that belonged to his beloved mother Rosa.