BC Partners European Real Estate and Kervis sgr (part of Kervis Asset Management spa group) have concluded the acquisition of a real estate portfolio in Milan from Bocconi University (see the press release here).
The initial offer of BC Partners and Kervis, relating to the portfolio, which includes the properties in Via Balilla 16-18 (approximately 8,000 square meters) and in Via Siracusa 5-7 (approximately 2,000 square meters), was presented in July 2020 and the transaction was then announced in February 2021 (see here a previous article by BeBeez), but BC Partners’ participation had not emerged at the time. The closing of the acquisition then took place last December, but was only announced yesterday.
The acquisition was conducted through the BCK1 fund, managed by Kervis sgr and subscribed by the BC Partners Real estate I fund, on its first real estate investment in Italy. Kervis will act as a local operating partner.
The investors were advised by Greenberg Traurig Santa Maria (legal); Gattai Minoli Agostinelli and Partners (administrative); NCTM (regulatory); REAAS (technical and cadastral) and EY (fiscal). Claudio Caruso acted as a notary.
Investors will completely redevelop the two main properties in the portfolio, with the aim of transforming them into high-end apartments that will be sold. The assets were previously used by the SDA Bocconi School of Management and as student accommodation respectively.
Laurian Douin, partner du BC Partners, commented: “We are very pleased to complete BC Partners’ first real estate investment in Italy with the help of Kervis and we hope this is the first of many. The real estate market in Milan offers sound fundamentals and interesting dynamics, with a limited supply of quality and newly built residential products and strong accessibility metrics for Milanese families”.
Giulio Bentivoglio, ceo of Kervis sgr, added: “The Milan residential sector is in the spotlight because many institutional investors have entered the market. We believe we are well positioned to do very well in this niche. We are delighted to be working with BC Partners. and we look forward to investing in new projects together leveraging our strong track record and local experience in the residential sector”.
BC Partners Real Estate is BC Partners’ real estate investment platform launched in 2018 by Stéphane Theuriau, Laurian Douin and Thibault Lauprêtre (see here a previous article by BeBeez). Its first fund, BCPERE I, launched in 2018, closed its fundraising last January with 900 million euros of commitments, compared to an initial target range of 500-700 millions (see here a previous article by BeBeez). The new fund is today already invested about 40%, as well as in Italy, in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. In detail, in November 2019 the fund had bought Wingate House, a mixed-use building in Soho, London; in May 2021 a stake in Edgar Suites, a French operator specializing in the transformation of obsolete offices into innovative apartments for short stays; in June 2021 it bought Alte Post, an office building in Kreuzberg, Berlin; in September 2021 it acquired a majority stake in Alsei, a French real estate developer; and in October 2021 the fund bought an office building in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris, which is currently the headquarters of Bnp Paribas Real Estate.
As for Kervis Asset Management, it was founded in 2011 in Milan by Marco Polenta and Giulio Bentivoglio, both with previous experience in Morgan Stanley’s European real estate funds. Mr. Polenta is also a member of the board of directors of the Italian proptech Casavo, since Kervis in February 2020 had participated in the 7 million euro Series A round led by Project A Ventures, a European venture capital fund based in Berlin (see here a previous article by BeBeez). Kervis sgr co-invests with international investors; it also makes direct investments in the real estate sector, as well as in platforms / club deals in the real estate sector. The sgr invests in all segments of the real estate market, with particular attention to offices, residential and logistics. Kervis also invests in distressed assets and special situations with particular attention to non-performing loans through its Kervis Credit Management division.
Last September Kervis sgr, on behalf of the alternative investment fund Milione, launched a joint venture with Goldman Sachs in order to invest one billion euros in two years in Italian logistics. The first investment of the joint venture, worth 130 million euros, was the purchase of two lands in Northern Italy of approximately 200 thousand square meters, in the province of Bologna and Novara, for the development of the latest generation logistic buildings (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
Last April Kervis sgr, through the KREF1 fund, sold to an Italian social security institution the retail portion of a property in via Arco 2 in Milan (Brera area), currently leased in Esselunga (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
