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Shares worth €1.3bn (£1.1bn; $1.5bn) have been seized from the company that controls the manufacturer of Campari over alleged tax evasion, Italian police have said.
Officials ordered the confiscation of the Campari Group shares from Luxembourg-based Lagfin as part of a year-long investigation into how it absorbed its Italian arm.
It is accused of failing to pay a similar figure to that of the shares seized in taxes during that merger. The company previously said it had always fulfilled its tax obligations.
Campari – which also produces alcohol brands including Aperol, Grand Marnier and Courvoisier – said neither it nor its subsidiaries were involved in the case.
However, chair Luca Garavoglia is among those under investigation, local media reports.
The BBC approached Lagfin – which owns more than 50% of Campari shares and has 80% of voting rights – for comment.
It previously said in a statement issued on the investigation last year that it had “always fulfilled its tax obligations with the utmost scruples in all the jurisdictions where it operates” and considers any claims to the contrary “devoid of any basis”.
Prosecutors in Milan launched a probe into the company last year. Financial police on Friday said they allegedly found €5.3bn of undeclared capital gains between 2018 and 2020 on which it had not paid a so-called “exit tax”, levied on firms that transfer their headquarters abroad.
It is also accused of transferring its Italian assets into foreign ownership solely for tax purposes, according to Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Mr Garavoglia, the billionaire who inherited ownership of Campari from his late mother, is implicated alongside Giovanni Berto, the head of Campari’s Italian branch, local media reports.
One of the largest global producers of spirits, Campari is valued at around €7bn on the Milan Stock Exchange.
The company has its roots in 1860, when Gaspare Campari’s homemade bitter liqueur became a popular tipple among patrons of his Milan bar.
It became so successful that, in 1904, his family began manufacturing it commercially, and from the 1990s onwards the firm began acquiring other alcohol brands.
Fashion brand Next has continued to see sales overperform, following a boost in the aftermath of a cyber-attack at rival firm M&S.
The British retailer reported a stronger-than-expected 10.5% increase in full-price sales for its third quarter on Wednesday and raised its full year profit guidance for the fourth time in eight months.
Next is now expecting to report a pre-tax profit of just over £1.1bn at the end of January 2026.
It reported that UK sales had weakened in comparison to the “exceptional performance” seen earlier in the year after the M&S cyber-attack in April, but had been better than anticipated.
“As a reminder, our UK sales performance in the first half benefitted from favourable weather conditions and competitor disruption” the retailer noted in its results.
“Nonetheless, UK growth of +5.4% was stronger than we had expected.”
Kate Hardcastle, a consumer expert at Insight with Passion, told BBC Breakfast: “Some of the success this year has certainly come from Marks and Spencer’s very challenged times with its cyber-attack. They were on a huge fight back in terms of their apparel department.”
She added that Next had “picked up the benefit” of consumers moving away from Marks and Spencer’s.
In April, M&S was hit with a cyber-attack and struggled to get services back to normal, with online orders and click and collect suspended, and limited stock in some stores.
It wasn’t until June that its fashion products became available for home delivery again.
M&S admitted that some personal customer data was taken during the attack.
Next was not the only retailer to benefit from the impact of the M&S cyber-attack with Sainsbury’s reporting a boost in sales due to the cyber disruption.
Next, which owns brands including Reiss and FatFace, has over 800 shops in the UK and Ireland and a presence online in over 70 countries.
However, the UK accounts for 80% of the retailer’s sales.
Ms Hardcastle said Next has long been a leading indicator of trends when it comes to the retail industry.
“We’re getting a sense that this is a brand that is hitting all the marks when it comes to the customer… it doesn’t mean we’ll see that play out for every retailer.”
Ms Hardcastle said that at a time when other retailers are reducing staffing numbers, Next is succeeding due to things like cost engineering, and striking the right balance between its digital and physical stores.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said the work the company was doing with partners and its international expansion had contributed to its “impressive growth”.
“The core brand is also demonstrating resilience in what remains a tricky consumer backdrop, with competitors struggling to match Next’s mastery of the basics of retail,” he said.
Next is now expecting to report a pre-tax profit of just over £1.1bn at the end of January 2026.
The warning from the clothing chain comes as it reported a 13.8% rise in pre-tax profits.
The firm follows Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser and Debenhams in shutting its Middlesbrough shop.
Next will open in an out-of-town retail park after a planning battle which has taken years to resolve.
Next looks set to get approval to open a store at an out of town retail park in Dumfries.
The advertising watchdog says it was “irresponsible” to emphasise the thinness of the model’s legs.
Plans for a major fashion retailer to move into a former Carpetright store are approved.
Job prospects for younger workers are likely to be hit by Budget measures, Lord Wolfson tells the BBC.
The High Street retailer said it expects to make nearly £1bn in full-year profit.
