Mediaset, sold the Cologno headquarters (for 52 million): the agreement between Generali and a Venetian company

The headquarters of Mfe-Mediaset in Cologno Monzeseat the gates of Milan. The real estate sale was closed on March 20 and concerns two of the three large buildings in viale Europa that have been representing for decades The heart of the group’s direction and television production. However, the property was not of Mediaset who has always paid the rent to a « landlord ». To sell it was Generali Real Estateto buy Cologno SPV, a securitization company constituted by the Venetian Finint bank on behalf of investors.

The propertyist behind the scenes

For the management of the complex (including the collection of rents) the buyer has commissioned a company that belongs to Mirella Viviana Arbib (79 years), whose family controls a Swiss private bank, and is administered by the real estate entrepreneur Angelo Anav (50). And it would be Anav, according to a credible reconstruction, the main investor who, with the support of Banca Mps, is behind the Cologno SPV.

600 thousand euro commissions

In the articulated sale, perfected with the deed of the Milanese notary Alessandro Andreatinimediations were paid for almost 600 thousand euros to two intermediaries and deleted the pre -existing mortgages of a series of banks (including Bank of China).
Cbre (Commercial Real Estate Service) intermediated the operation on behalf of Generali while for Cologno the English C&W (UK) of the real estate consultancy group took to the track Cushman & Wakefield. A mediation commission of 282,934 euros will go to each.

That choice of Silvio Berlusconi

« After 25 years of career I start from scratch, with a high -level quiz on a private network that has made exceptional technical means available. » It was 1982 and Mike Bongiornoabandoned Rai, was ready to launch superflash «in the new ones Television studios of Canale 5-Videotime in Cologno Monzese».
Forty -three years ago Silvio Berlusconi gradually transferred the activities of his TVs to the great buildings of Corso Europa where the Mediaset Tower, one of the most recognizable symbols of the group, also stands today. From Palazzo dei Cigni, the studies of Milan 2 where it all started with Telemilano, in Cologno in the Icet-de Paolis area, from the name of a company and a producer who had created a pole to rival with Cinecittà.

Mediaset between rent and property

But at the time Berlusconi bought the palaces of Cologno or from the beginning did he go on? In the documents of the sale (and from a historical view) the news on the property only starts since 2001 when the complex was already in the General Orbit (in the name of Assitalia). In 2006 he was then made to the Scarlatti real estate investment fund, reserved for professional investors and managed by Generali Real Estate Sgr. In the two buildings at the center of the sale, the TV of the Berlusconi family should always be rented while they are (and remain) owned by the group, and therefore outside the sale, both the tower and the palace to number 48, where offices of presidency, direction, CEO, CFO, marketing, communication etc. are concentrated. From the bottom of Generali the two buildings, therefore, have now passed to the Cologno SPV (acronym for Special Purpose Vehicle), which will carry out a real estate securitization with Banca Finint in the role of « Servicer », that is, the subject in charge of the collection of credits. It should be noted that in 2001 when the complex passed by hand inside the Generali group, it was enhanced, according to the budgets of the time, 46.7 million, just under the value of the current sale

From Casa Vianello to the Island of the Famous

The property changes but the Palaces of Cologno are always the nerve center of MediaForeurope-Mfe, that is, the new official name of Mediaset since in 2021 moved the registered office to Amsterdam. The main office and tax residence remain instead in the property of Viale Europa 46 which with the twin at the number 38-44 also hosts productions, editorial offices, television studies etc. Here the most important programs of Canale 5, Italy 1 and Rete 4 have been carried out from the eighties to date, including the wheel of luck, ok the price is right!, Word of mouth, Vianello house, good Sunday, jokes aside, stranger, Paperissima, Bim Bum Bam, afternoon five, live -non is D’Urso, the island of the famous and many others.

Who pays the fee (and how much)?

Owner of the lease contracts is the controlled RTI-Italian television reports. The cost of the rent is not known but the cadastral income of the two buildings is a total of over 800 thousand euros.

Down payment in November balance in March

The preliminary had been signed in November with the payment of a 5.2 million advance to get to the deed with the balance of 46.8 million taken from a bank account account and intended for an account of State Street Bank International. Total: 52 million. What will buying company do now? We read from the act of sale: « A real estate securitization operation to be carried out pursuant to article 7.2 of the securitization law, which will be financed by Banca MPS as well as through the issue by the SPV of multiple classes of securities … ». The securities can be purchased by institutional investors and the refund is guaranteed by the cash flow that derives from the management of the property (for example the rental fees). So the person who deals with management and administration is central. In the Cologno operation, the assignment was given to the Roman company Ecodomus, totally controlled by Mirella Viviana Arbib (79 years old) and administered by the real estate entrepreneur Angelo Anav (50 years).

The Anav-Arbib axis

A company of both (50/50), Finma 6, had signed the preliminary with Generali in November reserving to appoint the final buyer, that is, the Cologno SPV. This also contributes to strengthening the hypothesis that Anav (and perhaps also Arbib) is the investor for which Banca Finint has « mounted » the securitization. On the other hand, Mrs. Arbib rather than an operational contribution seems to be able to guarantee a contribution of capital: with her husband Joseph Benhamou and the family is the reference shareholder of the private bank of Geneva CBH-Compagnie Bancaire Helvétique who has 16 billion francs of assets in management (the change with the euro is more or less on equal) and 36 million of net profit 2024.