International asset management firm Amundi is launching a new closed end fund targeting so called minibond, MF-Milano Finanza wrote few days ago. The fund will be managed by Italian asset management company Amundi sgr and have a 200-250 million euros’ fundraising target.
Amundi sgr is controlled by  Crédit Agricole (80%) and Société Générale (20%), through Amundi sa. The asset manager in Europe have about 600 billion euros in bonds and short term fixed income instruments under management. The launch of the Italian fund is contemporary to the launch of a European fund focusing on private placements with a 500 million euros’ fundraising target. That fund will invest in Italian issues too.
The new fund i has nothing to do with the private debt fund that Amundi sgr will manage on a mandate by Sace (see a previous post of BeBeez), an Italian Government owned company which is a leading provider of credit insurance and other financial products for companies. The Sace fund will actually focus private placements issued by Italian companies listed or not listed which are exporters clients to Sace.
On the contrary the ne Amundi fund will invest in minibond, private placements, stakes in small regional closed end funds focused on minibond and securitizations of SMEs loans. All of them will have a minimum BB rating. The fund will target an average yield of 5-5.5% net of fees (fees are 1%).
As for the deal flow origination, Amundi sgr will be supported for 50% by Crédit Agricole group (Italian controlled banks are Cariparma, Friuladria and Carispezia) and by investment banking divisions of  Crédit Agricole and SocGen. For another 50% Amundi will be supported by a group of Italian banks, with Unicredit among them.
