Fininvest

Finanziaria d'investimento Fininvest S.p.A., also known as Fininvest, 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 Mondadori (one of Italy's leading publishing companies), Teatro Manzoni (a theatre in Milan), Alba Servizi Aerotrasporti (a private jet company) and Fininvest Gestione Servizi.

Fininvest is the largest shareholder of MFE – MediaForEurope, which is currently the biggest private entertainment competitor in Italy, known for domestic operations in Italy through Mediaset (including Canale 5, Italia 1, Rete 4, among others), Spanish operations through Mediaset España, the film production company Medusa Film, and many other companies related to TV broadcasting. The deal to sell Mediaset Premium collapsed in 2016.

Fininvest's voting rights on Mediolanum was capped at 9.9999% by Italian Insurance Supervisory Authority despite owning about 36% share capital of the financial conglomerate; the company reverse merger with subsidiary Banca Mediolanum in 2015. Fininvest had a shareholders' pact with Ennio Doris (the pact only binds to 25.5% share each, the excess amount of shares was not bound), 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 AC Milan to a Chinese private equity fund Sino-Europe Sports. The deal was completed on 13 April 2017.

On 15 February 2017, Fininvest announced that they bought an additional 2.9% shares of Mondadori (increased to 53.299%) It was followed by and additional 1.27% shares of Mediaset on 12 May. Fininvest had also purchased more shares in December 2016, in response to hostile takeover by Vivendi.