Who’s taking over Silvio Berlusconi’s €4bn empire?

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In today’s newsletter: 

• Marina Berlusconi steps into power

• Odey Asset Management plans a break-up

• The silver lining of a power struggle at Nissan

Marina Berlusconi ascends the throne

On Wednesday, more than 2,000 people packed Milan’s gothic Duomo to attend the funeral of Silvio Berlusconi, the polarising media tycoon turned three-time Italian prime minister.

Many of the scandals that followed the billionaire politician — from tax fraud conviction to “bunga bunga parties” involving underage girls — will now be left to history. But one question still burns over his legacy: what will become of his multibillion-dollar empire?

Enter Marina Berlusconi, the late power broker’s 56-year-old daughter who has been quietly primed to take over the family business for the past two decades.

Long thought to be her father’s obvious political successor — a prospect that has been floated again since his death — aides and confidants told the FT’s Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli that any of her recent political dealings were to help “protect” her father’s legacy.

Her true place in the Berlusconi dynasty is at the helm of the €4bn family holding company Fininvest, which she has chaired since 2005.

Marina and her four siblings hold minority stakes in Fininvest, which controls publisher Mondadori, lender Banca Mediolanum, football club Monza AC, and the family’s media empire, Mediaset, run by her brother Pier Silvio Berlusconi. The group also controlled AC Milan until the eldest Berlusconi sold it in 2017.

As Marina and Pier Silvio are set to inherit half of Berlusconi’s 60 per cent stake in Fininvest (their three half-siblings from their father’s second marriage will share equal stakes of the remaining 30 per cent), a new chapter has been set in motion for the family media conglomerate.

Mediaset has struggled to keep up with increased competition from streaming platforms. An attempted takeover of the group in 2016 by French rival Vivendi, run by the billionaire corporate raider Vincent Bolloré, exposed weaknesses in its strategy despite the deal having been thwarted.

Marina is expected to play a decisive role deciding its future which could also envisage its sale, said Lorenzo Castellani, a professor at Luiss University.

The break-up brewing at Odey Asset Management

Odey Asset Management’s problems just went from bad to worse.

The firm formerly run by fallen hedge fund star Crispin Odey is breaking up, the FT reported on Thursday, after an FT investigation published last week detailed 13 women’s accusations of sexual harassment or assault (which he strenuously denies) against him.

The firm’s other partners moved quickly to oust its besmirched boss. But it hasn’t made things any easier.

Following a broadening probe by the UK’s financial regulator and the flight of the firm’s banks, Odey Asset Management was dealt another blow this week when JPMorgan Chase served notice on its agreement to safeguard assets for the hedge fund’s clients as its custodian.

The hedge fund firm told clients it was in “advanced discussions” to transfer certain funds and staff to rival groups.

Odey Asset Management wouldn’t say what staff were going where, but the events of last weekend mean that Crispin won’t feature on any of the term sheets.

Nissan’s leadership turmoil makes for a smoother deal with Renault

The question of how to deal with an ambitious deputy can be a delicate one for chief executives.

At Nissan, the memory of the domineering Carlos Ghosn and his insistence on compliant deputies still lingers.

Yet the company has been plunged into its deepest governance crisis since Ghosn’s arrest in 2018, after it emerged that months of boardroom turmoil led up to the departure of chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta, the FT reported.

Gupta took his role at the same time as CEO Makoto Uchida in 2019 after missing out on the race for the top job.

In the years since, people familiar with the situation say Gupta had too frequently overstepped his role in order to claim the limelight.

When announcing a £1bn investment into the company’s Sunderland plant in the midst of the pandemic, Gupta travelled in secret to the UK and quarantined in a hotel, two people with knowledge of the event said. By the time Uchida learned of his deputy’s plans, it was too late for him to comply with the legal 10-day quarantine period for international travel.

The following day, Gupta took to the stage as the ranking Nissan executive, in an appearance that generated headlines — and photos — all over the world.

But earlier this year, some within Nissan decided they had enough.

Outside director Motoo Nagai presented Gupta with multiple internal complaints, some of which were historic, and which people familiar said weren’t investigated at the time.

For those keen to get Nissan’s troubled alliance with France’s Renault back on track, Gupta’s impending departure could be a welcome change.

The operating chief has long been viewed within Renault’s top ranks as one of the biggest obstacles in negotiations between the two carmakers.

Nissan says investigations into the situation are ongoing. But his impending departure shows that, for all the well-intended governance reform in the past half-decade, Ghosn wasn’t the last of its problems.

Job moves

• Disney’s chief financial officer Christine McCarthy is stepping down to take a family medical leave of absence. She’ll be replaced by Disney parks CFO Kevin Lansberry until a long-term successor is found.

• Legal & General has named António Simões to replace retiring boss Nigel Wilson in January. He joins from Santander where he is the regional head of Europe.

• Amy Wu has joined Menlo Ventures as a partner in New York. She previously led FTX Ventures, the investment firm led by Sam Bankman-Fried.

• Deutsche Bank has hired Credit Suisse’s Rumesh Rajendram as a managing director focused on consumer and retail, based in London. Deutsche has also hired Bank of America’s Siddharth Malik as global co-head of consumer and retail for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, based in London. Citigroup’s Robert Plowman will join the team as a managing director.

• Morgan Stanley has hired senior JPMorgan dealmaker Thomas Christl to co-head its consumer and retail coverage in Europe, per Financial News.

• JPMorgan’s head of equity capital markets for Asia-Pacific Murli Maiya is leaving the bank and will be replaced by her London-based colleagues who are expanding their roles.

• BlackRock has named former Starbucks executive John Kelly to the new role of global head of corporate affairs, according to a memo seen by DD. He was in a senior communications role at Roku.

Smart reads

The new king of Silicon Valley Jensen Huang has spent three decades building Nvidia into a semiconductor powerhouse. But it was his bold bet on artificial intelligence that made him into a Big Tech titan, Bloomberg writes.

Big whoop WE Soda’s IPO flop isn’t the death sentence for the London market that finger-pointing dealmakers are making it out to be, former Bank of America executive Craig Coben argues in FT Alphaville.

Quality control The struggles of Singaporean data centre owner Digital Core Reit is symptomatic of deeper issues within the Asian financial hub’s listings regime, writes the FT’s Mercedes Ruehl.

News round-up

Bullish valuation and poor economy blamed for WE Soda’s pulled IPO (FT)

Cava pops on debut as US restaurant chain tests appetite for IPOs (FT)

HarperCollins, KKR emerge as bidders for book publisher Simon & Schuster (Wall Street Journal)

First Quantum rebuffs informal approach from Barrick Gold (Bloomberg)

A Goldman partner’s sexually explicit video led to millions in settlement (Bloomberg)

Australia rolls back consultants’ influence after PwC tax leaks scandal (FT)

HSBC and Standard Chartered pressed by HK regulator to take on crypto clients (FT)

Bain Capital makes $3.2bn offer for SoftwareOne, board says it’s too low (Reuters)