US investors committed 61.5 million US dollars to BlueGem II fund, after non-US investors had committed 220 millions for a total consideration then of 281.5 million dollars raised till now on a 542.8 million dollars target. Figures are disclosed in a SEC filing dated last January 7th deposited by Bluegem Capital Partners’ managing partner, Marco Capello (download here the filing).
BlueGem is a London-based private equity operator founded in 2006 by three Italian former Merrill Lynch managers: Capello itself together with Emilio Di Spiezio Sardo and Marco Anatriello. Moreover four out of five seats in the advisory board are taken by Italians: Andrea Agnelli, Massimiliano Cagliero, Giorgio Girondi, Enrico Vitali amd Bob Wigley.
Andrea Agnelli is the chairman of Italian Juventus Football Club and founder and ceo of Lamse, a private equity and venture capital investment veichle, which in turn is invested in BlueGem’s funds and recently coinvested with BlueGem in Liberty, the British heritage brand famous for its department store on London’s Great Marlborough Street and its wholesale luxury fabrics business.
In June 2010 BlueGem completed its public takeover of Liberty Plc buying 100% of the capital of the company. Lamse last year bought a 4.5% stake in Liberty (valued about 120 million euros), MF-Milano Finanza wrote last June 2014, in order to help the international growth of the company that in 2013 reached revenues of 124.4 million pounds and ebitda of 18-19 millions. That target might be achieved strenghtening the business of fabrics production which already produce about 40 million pounds of revenues. Recently Liberty bought a 65% stake in Italian fabric Stamperia Olonia based in Northern Italy (Varese).
In Italy BlueGem owns a 49.5% stake in Olicar (the leading independent Italian company operating in the energy facility management business in Italy), a 45.8% in Neomobile (a global mobile commercegroup headquartered in Rome) and a 32.8% stake in Fintyre (the largest replacement tyres wholesale distributor in Italy).
