MILAN (Reuters) – Details of how billionaire Italian tycoon Silvio Berlusconi divided up his assets have been made public on Thursday after the will of the former prime minister, who died on June 12, was unsealed.
Under Italian law, the deceased’s heirs have a right to inherit two-thirds of his wealth in equal parts, while the individual making the will is free to dispose of the remaining one-third how they please.
Forbes estimated that Berlusconi and family had assets valued at around $6.8 billion, of which around two thirds were held by holding company Fininvest.
Following are details of the will.
* Berlusconi divided in equal parts among his five children two thirds of the 61.3% stake he owned in Fininvest whose assets include investments in broacaster MFE-MediaForEurope, asset manager Banca Mediolanum and Serie A soccer club Monza.
That means the five children each get an additional Fininvest stake of just over 8%, on top of what they already owned.
* He left the remaining one third of his stake, roughly 20% of Fininvest, to his eldest children, Marina and Pier Silvio, in equal amounts. Born from his first marriage, they are only two actively involved in family business.
* Marina and Pier Silvio already owned 7.65% of Fininvest each, or a combined 15.3%. When adding the rest the two are in control of the majority of Fininvest, meaning they can jointly take any decision on the future of the business.
* Berlusconi used the same formula for the rest of his estate — including properties and works of art — meaning that his eldest two children share around 60% of the assets, and the three younger ones the remaining 40%.
* Berlusconi also left 100 million euros ($109 million) to his latest partner Marta Fascina, whom he called his wife on his deathbed but had not legally married.
* He left 100 million euros to his younger brother Paolo.
* He left 30 million euros to Marcello Dell’Utri, a friend from his university days and long-standing aide. Dell’Utri served time in prison after he was conviced of mafia collusion in 2014.
($1 = 0.9187 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Keith Weir)
