Paolo Bellacosa, formerly CBRE's head of capital market Italy, has been appointed general manager of BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory (BNPPRE) in Italy as tipped by PropertyEU earlier this month.
BNPPRE said that Bellacosa has been recruited to improve the Italian capital markets, transactions, consulting and valuation businesses. His appointment confirms the strong commitment from the group to the Italian real estate market when important real estate projects are on the pipeline. These include the public real estate privatisations, disposals of portfolios by major banking groups and NPLs, BNPPRE said in a statement.
'Bellacosa's appointment is a strong vote of confidence in the business development of BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory on the Italian market,' said Lauric Leclerc, deputy chief executive property management & international advisory of BNPPRE. 'His mandate is oriented to increase revenues, develop synergies with the different Italian BNP Paribas companies, to enhance the team and strengthen it by attracting new talent.'
Bellacosa added: 'We are in a phase of evolution of the Italian market where the privatisation and deleverage processes made by Italian financial institutions, and turnover of the real estate fund portfolios can help to increase the size of our market in the medium term. My attitude has always been oriented to search for new capital sources and we see great development opportunities in the advisory and capital markets activities.'
BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory business line completed 3,700 transactions globally with a total investment volume of more than €17 bn in 2015.
Bellacosa's appointment comes at a time that the Italian real estate market is experiencing a renaissance, driven by strong interest from international investors thanks to the country's higher returns versus other mature European markets.
