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Italian family businesses

The accelerating transformation of family offices in Italy

May 4, 2021

Attention to strategies for the management and continuity of the assets of entrepreneurial families in Italy has grown considerably in recent years, as has the role and scope of family offices.

Attention to strategies for the management and continuity of the assets of entrepreneurial families in Italy has grown considerably in recent years, as has the role and scope of family offices.

Family offices are by definition the custodians and controllers of these—often immense—family assets and today represent a truly diverse universe.

Elisabetta Fabri on growing Starhotels, Covid-19 resilience and supporting women in business

April 1, 2021

Elisabetta Fabri, family principal of the private Italian luxury hospitality group Starhotels, is helping women in business achieve their potential by launching a new vocational training initiative.

Elisabetta Fabri, family principal of the private Italian luxury hospitality group Starhotels, is helping women in business achieve their potential by launching a new vocational training initiative.

The programme was among the measures by the multi award-winning second-generation president and chief executive in response to the impacts of Covid-19 on the world’s hotel, travel and tourism industries.

FB Roundup: Olivier Dassault, Exor, Hancock Agriculture

March 12, 2021

French heir and MP Olivier Dassault dies in helicopter crash, ‘Shared family values’ as Agnelli family buys foothold in Christian Louboutin, Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture goes to market with beef portfolio.

French heir and MP Olivier Dassault dies in helicopter crash

The sudden death of Olivier Dassault, billionaire heir to the French aerospace and software family business and politician, is “a great loss”, President Emmanuel Macron said in tribute.

Under the Tuscan son: Lamberto Frescobaldi on balancing tradition with innovation

November 16, 2020

The 30th generation winemaker Marchese Lamberto Frescobaldi was raised on the stories of his eminent ancestors who have produced wine in Tuscany since the beginning of the 14th century. They were explorers, musicians, scholars, bankers and politicians, trading with European courts and supplying wine to royalty and the papacy, as the family archive reveals in documents dating back to the 1200s.

De Benedetti family sells Italy’s biggest media group GEDI to Agnelli family

December 6, 2019

John Elkann, heir to the Agnelli industrial dynasty, says his family’s $113 million deal with the De Benedetti family’s media empire will future proof the publisher of Italy’s La Repubblica and La Stampa newspapers.

FB Roundup: Remy Cointreau, Starhotels and IBV International Vaults

December 4, 2019

Remy Cointreau sales are hit by Hong Kong protests; Elisabetta Fabri, second generation president of Starhotels, is knighted, and families are intrigued by a new bank vault for billionaires.

Remy Cointreau sales hit by Hong Kong protests

The French family-owned spirits group Remy Cointreau says it lost sales due to the impact of political protests on tourism in Hong Kong.

Sales stood at €523.9 million ($581 million), a drop of 3.6% in growth in the half-year to October, which were “below our expectations,” the group reported. The “very difficult context in Hong Kong since August” had “significant impact on our Asian duty-free business.”

FB Roundup: De Benedetti, Singh and Walentas

October 16, 2019

Family feud at Italy’s la Repubblica as founder seeks to take control from sons, India pharma brothers arrested over ‘330 million’ fraud and real estate family donate $100 million to help first-generation students.

Family feud at Italy’s la Repubblica as founder seeks to take control from sons

A feud at one of Italy’s most powerful dynasties broke out over the weekend after media tycoon Carlo De Benedetti accused his sons of mismanaging the newspaper business he founded and sought to regain control.

The 84-year-old founder came out of retirement on Sunday and made a €38 million ($42 million) offer to buy a 30% stake in GEDI Gruppo Editoriale SpA, the owner of daily newspapers la Repubblica and La Stampa.

Zegna family says buying US label Thom Browne is “the perfect fit”

August 30, 2018

Ermenegildo Zegna is renowned for its luxury menswear, but the Italian family-owned group is pursuing American women and millennials and consolidating its Asian market with its $500 million takeover of US label Thom Browne.

Italian government back tracks on loyalty shares

February 12, 2015

A measure introduced by the Italian government to incentivise partial listing of family businesses and encourage long-term shareholdings has been amended after institutional investors raised concerns that it unfairly benefited controlling shareholders.

Last year the Matteo Renzi-led government allowed listed companies to introduce “loyalty shares”, which grant shareholders double voting rights if they hold stock for more than two years.

Italian family business reputations largely unscathed by Prada tax probe

October 2, 2014

The reputation of Italian family businesses will escape unscathed despite news of yet another high-profile family being hit by allegations of tax avoidance, according to a family business academic.

The reputation of Italian family businesses will escape unscathed despite news of yet another high-profile family being hit by allegations of tax avoidance, according to a family business academic.

This week, family-owned Prada announced that its two chief executives, Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, are under investigation for inconsistent tax filings during the decade their holding company was based in Luxembourg.