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‘Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is not like his predecessors,’ Doglio told PropertyEU at Expo Real. ‘He brought in the Jobs Act which is helping the economy, he’s merging some of the smaller banks and introducing a raft of structural changes – of course that will take time, but those mechanisms are in place.’

UBS’s position in Italy has gone from strength to strength in the last 12 months. In September 2015, the global investment house created a dedicated Italian platform. UBS had been investing in Italy before, throughout the previous decade, in fact, but more passively – largely buying Italian assets on behalf of international clients that needed to diversify.

‘Now we’re establishing our place in the market,’ Doglio said. ‘We took two significant mandates this year – one for Poste Vita, an insurance business of Poste Italiane, and another for Zurich. For Poste Vita, we have been instructed to invest across Europe, except in Italy and the UK. For Zurich Italy, we’re building an Italian portfolio. We’ve been spending the last few months setting up those funds, now we’re focusing on making acquisitions before year end and I can confirm that we’ve bought one asset for Poste Vita in Spain and one for Zurich in Italy.

‘We want to send a message to the market that we are the right platform for clients to grow with us. Between new mandates and Fund of Fund initiatives, we’ve got plenty on our plate,’ he said.