FSI Mid Growth Equity Fund, the first private equity fund launched by FSI sgr, reached a final closing at 1.4 billion euros thanks to commitments signed by 22 Italian and international investors, ceo Maurizio Tamagnini told MF Milano Finanza. FSI sgr is a management company 51% owned by the management and for thethe rest by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and Poste Vita.
Mr. Tamagnini did not revealed the names of his investors however rumors are that they include Italian banks such as Mediolanum, UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, Banco-BPM and Mediobanca. Also banking foundations are investors such as Fondazione Cariplo and CRT and then obviously among the investors there are Cdp and Poste Vita. Finally, subscribers are some ogf the major international investors in private equity funds, including Tikehau Capital, and some sovereign funds such as the Kuwait Investment Authority, the European Investment Fund and SOFAZ (State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan).
Mr. Tamagnini stressed: “We have created what is the biggest growth private equity fund focusing on a single European country, which can become 3 billion euros with co-investments”, since “our investors said they might be willing to co-invest with us, so we estimate that our investment capacity is actually twice as high as the amount collected. And we also take into account the fact that our investment approach involves a very low recourse to borrowing or even null, to finance the development plans of the invested companies “.
On an aggregate level, the investors were two thirds Italian and one third foreign. In particular there is an 18% of Italian institutional investors. Then we have a 9% of foreign institutional investors. We have 27% of European banks, 18% of European insurances, 14% of European family offices and 14% of sovereign wealth funds.
Mr. Tamagnini explained that foreign investors had no fear of investing in Italy because in our country today there are great opportunities: “We have an industrial base that for 93% is still totally in the hands of the founder’s family, which now faces the generational change. We have a culture of risk capital that is spreading among entrepreneurs who want to make the dimensional leap to their companies and make them grow internationally. And we have a trend of transformation of bank credit into equity. Moreover the companies we look at all have an average of 70% of turnover produced abroad already and this percentage will grow “.
The FSI management team today includes 34 professionals including three other partners, in addition to Tamagnini himself: the chief investment officer, Barnaba Ravanne, Marco Tugnolo and Carlo Moser. FSI can then count on the collaboration of four industrial partners who have held top management roles in large multinational companies: Umberto della Sala (Foster Wheeler), Michele Norsa (Ferragamo), Eugenio Razelli (Magneti Marelli) and Carlo Bozotti (STMicroelectronics).
To date, the fund has already invested 25% of the collection, in the Missoni fashion brand, in the group of auto parts Adler, in the ICT group Cedacri focused on the banking industry and in the manufacturer of packaging for cosmetics Lumson.
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