Bernie Ecclestone’s former wife has established a family office to manage the fortune she was awarded in her divorce from the Formula One billionaire, it has been reported.
Slavica Malic, 65, who is said to have received more than £700 million from her 2009 divorce settlement, established the firm in 2023, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news.
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London-based Elm Cove, originally known as SM Private Office, is overseen by Stefan Le Marquand, a trust manager at Highvern, according to Companies House filings. Fredrik Nebrand, a veteran of BlackRock and HSBC, was brought on as chief investment officer in December 2023.
A representative for Malic declined to comment when approached for the original report.
Bernie Ecclestone, 93, met Malic while she was modelling at the 1982 Italian Grand Prix. They married in London three years later and went on to welcome daughters Tamara, 39, and Petra, 35. Ecclestone also has an older daughter, Deborah, from his first marriage, and shares a three-year-old son, Ace, with current wife Fabiana Flosi.
Over the course of their 24-year marriage, much of the family’s fortune was held in Malic’s name in offshore Jersey trusts.
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The Croatian-born model witnessed a significant change in her husband’s fortunes as he gradually gave up financial control of the business, including selling a stake to US private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in 2005. Ecclestone remained involved in Formula One until Liberty Media bought the company from CVC in 2017.
Malic petitioned for divorce in November 2008, citing Ecclestone’s ‘unreasonable behaviour’. She was represented by Liz Vernon, head of Clintons’ family law practice who has been dubbed ‘The Terrier’ by British tabloids. The decree nisi was granted by a district judge in March 2009.
[See also: Meet Liz Vernon, the Top Divorce Lawyer the Tabloids Dub ‘The Terrier’]
A years-long HMRC investigation into Ecclestone’s financial activities culminated in October 2023 when he received a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud.
As a result, Bernie Ecclestone paid £652.6 million into HMRC’s coffers – covering tax, penalties and interest for 18 tax years between 1994 and 2022 – an amount which landed him in second place on the Sunday Times’ annual list of the top 100 taxpayers in the UK.
