EUROPE - Cordea Savills last week announced that it had found a cornerstone institutional investor for Italian Opportunities, a closed-end Luxembourg real estate SOPARFI.
The fund is looking to raise 鈧�200m for single-asset and portfolio acquisitions identified from the open market by the fund鈥檚 Milan-based team. It will target 20% annual returns.
Fund manager Gerardo Solaro del Borgo said interest had come primarily from investors looking to gain exposure to Italian property with an independent fund. 鈥淲e have a European base and an Italian structure, but we鈥檙e independent of any bank,鈥� he said.
Del Borgo 鈥� who, at Deutsche, was responsible for the launch of the country鈥檚 first real estate fund 鈥� compared Italy to emerging Eastern European markets. He said it was characterised by a lack of transparency, the prevalence of off-market transactions and high levels of owner-occupation. In addition, market opacity increases the risk of mispricing.
The fund will repackage 鈥減ortfolios that have slipped under the radar of the larger opportunity funds鈥� and reposition single assets and portfolios.
鈥淚nvestors are interested not just in what you buy but how you buy,鈥� said del Borgo. 鈥淭he product is ready and it meets the standards of institutional investors.鈥�
He added: 鈥淭here are no limits. We鈥檒l be looking at retail, commercial and 鈥� eventually 鈥� residential.鈥�
Cordea Savills has 鈧�2.5bn in assets under management.
