Silvio Berlusconi’s Heirs Win Appeal Against ECB On Banca Mediolanum Stake

Silvio Berlusconi’s Heirs Win Appeal Against ECB On Banca Mediolanum Stake

The verdict vindicated their stand against an opposite ruling by a lower EU court in 2022

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that the European Central Bank (ECB) erred by blocking Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi from keeping a 30 percent stake in lender Banca Mediolanum after a tax fraud conviction.

The court annulled the ECB's decision, stating that it "could not lawfully oppose Berlusconi's ownership" as EU laws on which the ECB's decision relied had not yet been adopted by Italy, and could not have a retroactive effect.

In October 2014, the Bank of Italy ordered Berlusconi's investment vehicle Fininvest to sell a stake of over 20 percent after he was no longer considered fit to own more than 10 percent of a financial company due to his tax fraud conviction a year earlier.

The voting rights linked to the corresponding shares were suspended promptly.

The verdict vindicated an appeal by Fininvest and the heirs of the late Italian politician and media mogul, against an opposite ruling by a lower EU court in 2022.

The lower court, which had said four years ago that it alone had the power to rule on the legality of the ECB decision, upheld the central bank's 2016 decision to prevent Berlusconi from retaining his stake.

Following Berlusconi's death in June 2023, his heirs asked the ECB and the Bank of Italy to lift the curbs on the full stake in the lender, which is currently worth 2.5 billion euros ($2.79 billion).

Meanwhile, asset manager Mediolanum was launched in 1997, with no branches. It was the first to offer services over the phone and teletext by Ennio Doris, a long-standing friend and financial partner of Berlusconi.