Luciano founded the company by selling sweaters out of small store in Treviso that were knitted by his sister Giuliana. Within two decades the offspring of a bicycle shop owner had become a global force in fashion, both for their vibrant clothing and provocative ads that occasionally riled the Catholic Church. The Vatican once took legal action to halt a campaign that featured a doctored photo of the pope kissing a Muslim leader.
Gilberto, who runs the clan’s finances, started to diversify in the 1990s, making purchases in a wave of privatizations that produced the bulk of its current fortune. The family now holds about 12 billion euros of assets, including a 30 percent stake in Atlantia, which became the world biggest toll-road operator this year with the acquisition of Spanish rival Abertis.
The strategy proved prudent. Their clothing chain has struggled to compete with upstarts like Inditex SA’s Zara brand and lost 180 million euros last year. In 2015, the family sold its stake in another major retailer, World Duty Free SpA, to Basel, Switzerland-based Dufry AG.
Last year, the siblings hired former Telecom Italia SpA Chief Executive Officer Marco Patuano to revamp their investments, reduce their dependence on Italy’s sluggish economy and pursue a more global strategy.
Eurotunnel Stake
About 45 percent of the group’s revenue came from abroad last year and that share is even greater now with Atlantia’s purchase of Abertis, which operates in South America and France as well as Spain. The Benettons also became the biggest owner of Spanish mobile-phone tower operator Cellnex.
Separately, Atlantia bought a billion-euro stake in Eurotunnel -- now Getlink SE -- the operator of the underwater link between the U.K. and France, and won the right to manage Nice’s main airport. The company is also considering spinning off Autogrill’s North American division, which accounted for more than half of the international restaurant chain’s 4.6 billion euros of sales last year.
The Benettons have done well pivoting away from their flagging brand and will likely weather the current storm over the Morandi Bridge disaster, according to Ugo Arrigo, a professor of public finance at Bicocca University. He said he doubts the government will make good on threats by some officials to pull the toll-road license held by Atlantia, which operates half of Italy’s motorways.
“The government has been very generous in granting the family lucrative motorway tariffs over the past two decades,” Arrigo said from Milan.
Atlantia shares renewed their decline after the government on Friday sent the company a letter formally beginning the process of withdrawing the concession. The stock was down 8.1 percent to 17.77 euros as of 9:38 a.m. in Milan on Monday, after a delayed opening.
Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio reiterated the plan on Saturday after Autostrade offered an initial 500 million euros in funding to help victims and said it would rebuild the bridge in eight months. The government is moving to re-nationalize the highway system, and is studying passing a fast-track law in parliament, La Repubblica reported.