Shares in Berlusconi companies take a nose dive

Court orders payment of 560 million Euros in damages to media rival

Shares in Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's companies fell sharply on Monday after a Milan court ordered his company Fininvest to pay 560 million euros in damages for bribing a judge in 1991.
Although the appeals court substantially cut the damages bill from 750 million euros, it ruled Berlusconi should compensate media rival Carlo De Benedetti who challenged him for control of Mondadori, Italy's biggest publishing firm, two decades ago.
In Monday's trading Mondadori lost 4.76% while Berlusconi's media arm Mediaset fell 2.11%. But De Benedetti's CIR group also suffered as CIR fell 3.69% and its other subsidiaries also declined.
Lawyers for CIR on Monday requested a copy of the judgement from the appeals court signalling what ANSA understands to be the first step to recuperate the damages from a fund of 806 million euros being held by banks led by Intesa San Paolo. Berlusconi on Saturday cut short a visit to the southern island of Lampedusa, where more than 40,000 immigrants have landed since January, and retired to Villa Certosa, his holiday home in Sardinia, for talks with his lawyer Niccolo Ghedini.
On Monday he was due to study the decision with his children including daughter Marina, chairman of Fininvest, who condemned the decision at the weekend saying her father had never done anything wrong. He has so far declined to comment on the decision but political ally Roberto Formigoni, governor of the Lombardy region surrounding Milan, said "such an enormous amount puts the accounts of a company at risk".
"This has never happened before in Italian history," Formigoni said.
Education Minister Maria Stella Gelmini, another Berlusconi ally, also hinted at a new legal measure to protect the premier for paying the damages.
Last week Berlusconi withdrew a clause which had been inserted in the budget reform package that would have meant Fininvest did not have to pay the compensation until it had exhausted the appeals process.
"The premier preferred to withdraw it after the subsequent attacks," Gelmini told the daily, Il Messaggero.
"However, it will be presented again in the Senate because you cannot leave such substantial damages to the discretion of the judiciary.
"The article is going to be better written and explained, but the principle will be protected". – ANSA

Publication Date: 2011-07-17
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=11448