Italian real estate company Coima has been flexing its muscles on the fundraising front, with a first close of €200 mln for an opportunity fund backed by a major Asian sovereign wealth fund believed to be GIC, as anchor investor.
Separately, the firm's ESG City Impact Fund (COIMA Impact), which has so far has raised over €800 mln from leading Italian institutional investors and is set to reach €1 bn in investment by year end, has won approval to double the target size from to €1 bn to € 2bn. The company also revealed plans for a series of more funds.
First close of opppo fund
The first close has been held for COIMA Opportunity Fund III (COF III), that has a target of raising €500 mln in equity by 2024 to decarbonize real estate across major Italian cities.
The fund is focused on building a portfolio of 'next-generation carbon neutral real estate projects' in the office and residential sector, particularly brown-to-green urban redevelopment and retrofit projects in central areas of Milan and Rome where corporate demand for high quality sustainable real estate is strong. The portfolio will be fully aligned with European taxonomy on decarbonization, and all buildings will be LEED certified, said the company.
It has a ten year shelf life and is primarily targeting international institutional investors with a target return rate - levered Internal Rate of Return, of 14%.
COF III follows COF I, which is already disinvested with returns exceeding the initial target 13% levered IRR versus the expected 8%, and COF II, which raised over €500 mln from leading international investors. COF II is now fully invested one year ahead of schedule and its returns are currently in line with the levered IRR goal of 12%.
Manfredi Catella, founder and CEO, said, 'The first close of COF III and the expansion of our COIMA Impact Fund, along with other key milestones achieved by our sustainable investment vehicles, underlines Italy’s continued importance as a strategic market for national and international capital focused on sustainable urban regeneration.'
The compnay said it was part of a wider strategic commitment to ESG-led real estate through sustainable investment vehicles classified under Article 8 or Article 9 of the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
Coima is planning the launch of a series of SFDR-aligned programmatic funds focused on decarbonization in specific sectors, including residential and tourism, which together are targeting €2 bn of investment through to 2026.
