US investor Capstone Equities Manager has launched a €26.5m bid to acquire a 33% stake in an Italian closed-end fund managed by Vegagest SGR.
The Fondo Europa Immobiliare N.1 fund, which owns 13 commercial real estate assets in Italy and abroad, is managed by Vegagest, an asset manager backed by several Italian banks and insurance companies.
The deal is the first operation in Italy by New York-based Capstone, owned and managed by Joshua Zamir.
The company currently invests 80% of its assets in Europe.
Capstone plans to acquire 37,423 shares in Fondo Europa Immobiliare N.1 at €710 per share – a premium of 22.4% on the funds’ NAV per share at the beginning of this month and 13.8% on the weighted average NAV per share over the past 12 months.
This compares to an initial share price of €2,500 when the fund was originally launched.
The transaction would represent the third bid from US investors to acquire shares of closed-end Italian real estate funds on the secondary market over the past year.
Recently, Gwm and Eurocastle bid for 40% of Unicredito Immobiliare Uno, and Blackstone targeted Atlantic 1 of Idea Fimit.
Capstone launched the offer through Irish vehicle SP 101 Finance Ireland and Capstone Equities Capital Management, a US investment fund.
The original closing date for Fondo Europa Immobiliare N.1 was 2014, but this has been pushed back to 2017 and may be pushed to 2019.
Among the assets of Fondo Europa Immobiliare N.1 is a logistics centre in Levate, near Bergamo, and a building in Netherlands in Amstelveeen.
