The tide might be turning for former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
A year ago, the 81-year-old billionaire politician was out of power and locked in battle. Banned from public office after a 2013 conviction for tax fraud, the former four-time Italian prime minister was campaigning against then-Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi’s proposed reforms, while his fortune languished near a five-year low.
Then a fight over control of his broadcaster Mediaset SpA broke out with French billionaire Vincent Bollore.
The struggle spurred investor interest in Mediaset, driving up the share price, and Berlusconi got a further political boost last month when his Forza Italia party won a center-right coalition victory, positioning him for a potential return to power.
With help from a rally in Italian equities, the self-described “most persecuted man in history” has seen his net worth rise 36.9 percent from Nov. 28 last year, when Vivendi’s chief content officer touted the company’s possible alliance with Mediaset as a way for European media companies to compete with US rivals.
Berlusconi, who is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights against the ban on holding office, has seen his net worth rise to US$8.4 billion, the best performance in the period among the five Italians on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.
A spokesman for Berlusconi’s Milan-based investment firm, Fininvest SpA declined to comment on his net worth.
Closely held Fininvest has stakes in media, biotechnology and finance, including his two largest holdings, Mediaset, which had a total return of 43 percent since Nov. 28 last year, and Mediobanca SpA, which rose 62 percent.
Italian equities are up 42 percent in the same period, despite an economy that is still struggling with high unemployment, rising poverty and a strained financial system.
Berlusconi, who sold Italian Serie A soccer team AC Milan to Chinese investors in April for 740 million euros (US$788 million), faces a new trial in February, ahead of Italy’s national elections.
Last month he was indicted for allegedly bribing a witness to give false testimony about allegations he held “bunga bunga” sex parties and hired an underage Moroccan prostitute.
He denies wrongdoing.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS