What happened between Berlusconi, Cuccia and Geronzi
The Silvio Berlusconi capitalist and entrepreneur seen by Oscar Giannino for the sheet
WHEN THERE WERE PROBLEMS FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR BERLUSCONI
The early nineties had been very problematic for the activities of the Cavaliere . The worst came in 1992: zero-growth TV advertising, financial and commercial debts which rose to 4,500 billion lire according to Mediobanca, compared with assets of just over a trillion, more than 700 billion a year of financial charges alone, the everything held up only thanks to the collection of cash by Standa, which however led to a loss, by not paying the suppliers and having to turn over cash to support the parent company. Very significant shares of the major group companies were the mortgage guarantee of bank loans. T
WHEN BERLUSCONI GOES TO THE DOOR
All this privately prompted Berlusconi to even attempt a path that was indigestible to him. Go to Enrico Cuccia and ask him for help. But Cuccia replied that help was possible only on condition that Berlusconi accepted what the Agnellis and the Pirellis had repeatedly had to comply with in order to be saved by Mediobanca: remaining for a while in the minority in management powers, and doing all that Mediobanca would have arranged. Berlusconi said no, and risked that the still public banks of national interest would block the continuous advance of the credit lines, asking him for an immediate repayment which would have determined the default of the group.
THE ROLE OF CESARE GERONZI FOR BERLUSCONI
Cesare Geronzi escaped with the Banco di Roma, which continued to support Berlusconi and obtained his undying gratitude. But Geronzi was not wrong: in the end Berlusconi entrusted his group in the hands of Franco Tatò in the autumn of 1993, and with the quotation of Mondadori and with the transformation of Mediolanum into a Spa and then also listed, the basis for Tatò to recover parent company 1,600 billion lire were already placed shortly before the 1994 elections. Before, albeit shortly but before: not after.
WHAT DOES CUCCIA THINK ABOUT BERLUSCONI
It is no mystery that Cuccia derived from these events his judgment of Berlusconi as an uninhibited man whose word does not count for much, always ready to put to his own advantage the relational externalities that come from the deep heart of a less productive Italy, which stands on time after time to those economic and political forces that tomorrow will guarantee conspicuous recognition.
[…]
In the eyes of a loser like me, Berlusconi is unforgivable. And his current followers in Italy are not endowed with even a fraction of his communicative power of the past. But let's be clear: only by concentrating dozens and dozens of investigations and trials on him was the effect of giving him the reputation of a serial offender was obtained. If we had ever witnessed similar judicial initiatives on the Schimberni and Gardini and Iri and Efim and Gepi of the past, we would have seen horrors emerge which instead will remain closed in oblivion forever.
(Excerpt from an article published by the Foglio; here the complete article)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/silvio-berlusconi-imprenditore-oscar-giannino/ on Sat, 17 Jun 2023 05:04:50 +0000.