Aperol maker suffers worst drop since April amid Italian tax probe

Shares of Davide Campari-Milano N.V., the maker of Campari, Aperol, and Cinzano, fell 6% in trading in Milan early today, November 3, after Italian prosecutors seized about EUR1.3 billion worth of its stock held by controlling shareholder Lagfin SCA as part of a tax-fraud investigation.

In early trading today, Campari shares dropped as much as 6% on the Milan Stock Exchange, their steepest intraday fall since April, before paring some of the losses, Bloomberg reports. By publication time, the decline had narrowed to 3%, with the stock at EUR5.83 per share.

The selloff followed action by Italy’s Financial Guard, which on October 31 ordered the seizure of Campari shares owned by Luxembourg-based Lagfin SCA. Prosecutors allege that Lagfin failed to pay exit tax on roughly EUR5.3 billion in capital gains after absorbing an Italian subsidiary that held Campari’s controlling stake. They claim the reorganization effectively shifted the group’s tax base abroad.

Italy’s Financial Guard said on November 1 that it had executed a court order to confiscate nearly EUR1.3 billion in securities belonging to “a holding company in the jurisdiction of Luxembourg,” without naming the firm. The probe began after a tax audit into that company, which, following an “extraordinary merger by incorporation,” absorbed its Italian subsidiary holding a majority stake in “a well-known company operating in the food sector.”

Lagfin said it has always “acted in the most scrupulous respect of any applicable laws and regulations.” The dispute, which began about two years ago, “has never involved the Campari Group in any manner whatsoever,” the company stated in a October 31 press release.

The AI translation of this story was reviewed by a human editor.