Italy’s private equity turnaround firm Europa Investimenti spa won control of Vegagest sgr, an Italian asset management company owned by Italian banks and insurance companies. Vegagest’s ownership had been included in the debt restructuring agreement of its Aster real estate closed-end fund that has been signed with lending banks last year (see here the press release by Vegagest e the Milan Court’s judgement).
The change of control of the asset management company had however been subject to Bank of Italy authorization which came a few days ago. In the authorization process Europa Investimenti was supported by Legance law firm.
The agreement with lenders of the fund stated that Europa Investimenti would have invested cash in a real estate project of the fund in order to help restructuring its financial situation while obtaining from the same lenders (who were also Vegagest’s shareholders) at least a 70% stake in Vegagest sgr.
Europa Investimenti’s ceo, Stefano Bennati, explained MF Milano Finanza that the company will buy a 95.64% stake in Vegagest sgr’s capital as more lenders have been signing the agreement in the last few months. The remaining minority stake in owned by two little banks (one of which is Banca Popolare Lecchese, controlled by Oaktree fund).
The deal is to be seen in the framework of Europa Investimenti’s new strategy to enlarge its distressed investments range in real estate, private equity and energy sectors so Vegagest will be launching its new funds in a 6-12 months’ time.
This deal ia parallel to an agreement signed by Europa Investimenti with Avenue Capital US turnaround private equity firm at the end of 2015. Actually Avenue Capital bought a 28.3% stake in Europa Investimenti’s capital and committed 150 million euros for co-investiments in Italian distressed SMEs (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The two firms recently co-invested in Selcom Elettronica  (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Benatti said BeBeez cthat Vegagest sgr will be managed by new appointed ceo  Carlo Nardone (now a manager at Europa Investimenti), while chairman  Sido Bonfatti and managing director Massimo Rossi will be confirmed in their actual role in Vegagest.
