ITALY: Campari leading family hit by fine - report

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 4 October 2006

The controlling family of Italian drinks company Davide Campari has been instructed to pay compensation to a family member, according to press reports.

Citing legal sources, Dow Jones said yesterday (3 October) that Davide Campari chairman, Luc Garavoglia, his mother Rosa Anna Magno Garavoglia and one of his two sisters, Alessandra Garavoglia, will have to pay the other sister, Maddalena Garavoglia EUR100m (US$126m). Maddalena filed a suit against the rest of the family 13 years ago, claiming that she had been given misleading financial information by family members following the death of her father, then-chairman Domenico Garavoglia, in 1992.

Maddalena claimed she was advised to exit the 52%-family-owned business after her father died rather than participate in financing a capital increase, the news service said. The family's holding in Campari is currently worth over EUR1.1bn. The three family members have also been instructed to pay legal fees of a further EUR892,000.

Sources told Dow Jones that Luca Garavoglia and his mother will now appear in a criminal court hearing to answer charges of providing Maddalena with false information.

Sectors: Spirits, Wine

Companies: Campari