ITALY: Gianni Agnelli lived life to the full - the last man to leave the night-club, the first man of Italian business. Paddy Agnew reports from Rome
Italy is in mourning following the death of Gianni Agnelli, the patriarch of the automobile giant Fiat. Mr Agnelli, who died at his home in Turin yesterday at the age of 81 after a long battle against prostate cancer, was a larger-than-life figure whose predominant role in the industrial, commercial, cultural and sporting life of post-war Italy often prompted commentators to refer to him as the "uncrowned king" of Italy.
Whether it was as a fashion icon, famous for wearing his wristwatch over the cuff of his shirt, or as a passionate follower of the nation's favourite game and, in particular, of the family-owned Juventus football club, Gianni Agnelli remained a role model for millions of Italians, who revered him as the undisputed helmsman of the flagship of Italian industry.
Arguably the single most influential Italian business leader of the 20th century, Mr Agnelli played a major role in building Fiat into Italy's largest private-sector company, overseeing its development far beyond its core car business into an industrial and financial conglomerate which at one time controlled almost 25 per cent of the Italian stock exchange. Along the way, his business skills, his soft-spoken, aristocratic Turin ways and his restless charm made him a valued friend of shakers and makers, including John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller and Mikhail Gorbacev.
A major player in the jet set of the late Forties and early Fifties, at a time when his dinner-table guests might include Prince Rainier of Monaco, actor Errol Flynn, actress Anita Ekberg and racehorse owner Aly Khan, Mr Agnelli was someone who, in the words of a 1969 Time article, "had had a full career in the gossip columns long before he reached the financial pages".
Despite allegedly leaving a trail of broken hearts and crashed motor-cars all over the French Riviera, Mr Agnelli managed a seamless metamorphosis when the last man out of the night-club became the first man of Italian industry in the 1960s.
Italian journalist Enzo Biagi, in a book on Gianni Agnelli, recounts how Nikita Khrushchev, the former Soviet leader, went out of his way to greet Mr Agnelli in Moscow during a 1962 trade fair. "I want to talk to you, because you will always have power. These others [pointing to Italian politicians\] will come and go", Khrushchev is alleged to have said.
Khrushchev knew his man, while Agnelli knew his market; four years later, he concluded an important deal with Khrushchev, setting up a Fiat plant in the USSR.
Gianni (Giovanni) Agnelli, better known to generations of Italians as "L'Avvocato" (the lawyer), was born into wealth. His grandfather, Giovanni Agnelli, founded the Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino (FIAT) in July 1899, four years before a certain Henry Ford set up shop in Dearborn, Michigan, USA.
Despite taking up the reins of power at Fiat relatively late in life at the age of 46, Gianni Agnelli successfully oversaw the company's growth into a global player. He had inherited a company whose popular 500 and 600 models had literally put Italians back on the road after the destruction of the second World War.
With cars like the Fiat Uno in the Eighties and the Punto in the Nineties, Agnelli built on that tradition, making Fiat Auto the 11th biggest car manufacturer in the world today, and that notwithstanding troubled years of Red Brigade terrorism and trade union unrest, especially in the 1970s.
Inevitably, politicians, economic commentators and the Italian media yesterday spoke of Mr Agnelli's death as the "end of an epoch", noting that his demise coincided with the deep crisis currently being experienced by Fiat.
Earlier this week, Fiat Auto confirmed annual losses for 2002 of €1.4 billion at the end of a year in which declining sales (Fiat's share of its key domestic market is now 28.7 per cent, or less than half its share of 15 years ago) and increasing debt had prompted it to implement a restructuring plan which will eventually lead to 8,100 job losses - one-fifth of the company's Italian workforce.
That crisis had led many, inside and outside Fiat, to recommend that it should sell off its unprofitable auto divison, most probably to General Motors, which already holds a 20 per cent stake, bought in 2000, as well as an option to buy out the remaining 80 per cent after next year. It is no secret that the most powerful opponent of the "sell-out" option was Gianni Agnelli.
Significantly, Fiat shares gained 2.48 per cent on the Milan bourse yesterday on the news of Mr Agnelli's death. The rally was prompted by speculation that, following the death of "L'Avvocato", Fiat Auto might be back in the market looking for a buyer. In the meantime, Mr Agnelli's younger brother, Umberto, is likely to assume command of the Agnelli family holding companies and, through them, of Fiat.
An influential, behind-the-scenes figure in Italian politics, Mr Agnelli's last significant political action had been to express a surprise endorsement for the present centre-right prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, during the 2001 election campaign.
Yesterday, Mr Berlusconi joined Pope John Paul II, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and many others in expressing his appreciation of "L'Avvocato", saying: "He was a champion of Italian industry and a princely protagonist on the world stage. He was a master of style, a promoter and developer of lovely things. I admired him and I mourn the passing of a friend, of an extraordinary person who represented a unique expression of Italian versatility, love of life and curiosity."