MILAN-Italian public sector real estate investment firm Fimit and the private First Atlantic Real Estate have finally agreed a merger to create Idea Fimit, Italy's largest independent real estate asset management firm. Talks have been in progress for several months.
Fimit (Fondi Immobiliari Italiani), set up in 1998 by Italian state-owned bank Mediocredito Centrale and the Inpdap pension fund, manages 13 real estate funds and more than $7.3 billion of assets under management. First Atlantic, 70% owned by Italy’s diversified De Agostini group, has $4.7 billion under management in 130-plus assets, of which $3.8 billion is in Italian SGR closed funds and another $821 million managed for third parties.
Inpdap, along with Ifim, Enpals and Enasarco, which control Fimit, and Dea Capital, which owns 70% of First Atlantic holding company FARE, will swap their units at a ratio of 1.48:1. Approval from the companies' boards, Bank of Italy and the market authority is expected to take six months.
Fimit CEO Massimo Caputi and First Atlantic CEO Daniel Buaron will form the management board, responsible for Italian and foreign markets respectively. Buaron said earlier this year that the deal, still in negotiation at the time, would allow the combined group to achieve critical mass for attracting international capital into Italian commercial property. “Idea Fimit will be one of the main interlocutors among Italian and international institutional investors in the promotion, creation and management of closed-end property funds, creating the conditions for future development in foreign markets and creating synergies in real estate fund management," the firms said in a joint statement. It will be 40.3% held by FARE, 20.9% by Ifim, 18.3% by Inpdap, 11.3% by Enpals, 5.9% by Enasarco and 2.9% by Inarcassa. Milan-based private equity group Dea Capital, majority-owned by DeAgostini, will control the new company and name the chief executive.
Allan Saunderson is a managing editor of Property Investor Europe and a contributor to GlobeSt.com.
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