Matteo di Montezemolo, son of former Ferrari spa’s chairman Luca di Montezemolo, announced yesterday that he raised 400 million euros in the first closing of Charme III, the new private equity fund raised by his private equity firm Montezemolo & Partners sgr (download here the press release).
The sum raised was quite higher than the 250 million euors target for the first closing and is quite much closer to the 500 million euros final target  to be reached by  June 2016.
“That final target won’t be changed to a higher amount even if investors’ response has been so good”, Montezemolo&Partners sgr’s ceo said MF-Milano Finanza. “We think that after a 180 million euros first fund and 340 millions second fund, a 500 millions fund is the right size”, Montezemolo added, stressinf that “with this new fund we are going to invest in other European countries too even if Italy will remain our core business”.
Investors actually have been happy to subscribed the new fund after very good results by the two previous funds. At the beginning of last year Charme I fund sold its last asset in the portfolio, that was a majority stake in data specialist Octo Telematics, a developer of a fast-growing range of specialist applications, for insurance and transport companies, that mitigate risks of fraud and optimise fleet management. Acquiror was the Russian conglomerate Renova Group, owned by Viktor Vekselberg.”Charme made 3.7x the equity it had invested in Octo Telematics 4 years before an rich 47% Irr”,
Montezemolo said. As for Charme II, it sold its stake in Poltrona Frau, Italy’s leading manufacturer in the industry of high-end design furnishing, to US furniture manufacturer Haworth (see a previous post by BeBeez). “Again, we made 3.7 times the equity we had invested in Poltrona Faru too. We had been invested for 10 years in this deal so the Irr had been lower, but quite rich anyway. We made a 22% Irr”, di Montezemolo added.
Thanks to those exits Charme I is now returning its subscribers  2.1x the equity they had invested while Charme II is returning 2.4x. Moreover, Montezemolo remined that “Charme II has one asset remaing in its portfolio, which is a majority stake in pharma company Bellco, one of the pioneers of haemodialysis. We are going to stay in Bellco for another couple of years. The fund would give back its investors 2.4 their capital, If we obtained from Bellco’s exit just what we had invested. If we are going to have a better exit, which is what I believe, Charme II is going to give back much more to its investors”.
Among first hour subscribers to the new fund there are all subscribers to the two previous funds and three new investors. One is Italy’s wealthy Vacchi family, controlling Ima packaging group. Other two investors are wealthy Hong Kong’s entrepreneurs Sam LI (controlling Li real estate group) and Silas Chou (who is a big investor in fashion brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Micheal Kors).
Among previous subscribers are well known Italian entrepreneurs such as Diego Dellla Valle (Tod’s) or Isabella Seragnoli (Coesia) as well as foreign entrepreneurs such as Idian tycoon Ratan Tata or wealthy families from United Arab Emirates such as Abu Dhabi0s and Bahrei families through teri family offices.
Montezemolo&Parnters sgr’s team includes chairman Luigi Sala, the senior partner Tommaso Bolchini, Â Simone Cavalleri (partner) and cfo Matteo Facoetti.
