Intesa Sanpaolo buys 5% stake in Pirelli Real Estate

Pirelli Real Estate has sold a further 5% stake in its property fund management business Pirelli & C. Real Estate Società di Gestione del Risparmio (SGR) to Intesa Sao Paolo for EUR 10 mln. The move will boost the bank's stake in Pirelli RE SGR to 10%.

At the initial announcement of the partnership at end September, Pirelli RE said that the move was part of its strategy to increase the activities and the portfolio managed by the SGR and is in line with the group's target to increase profits from the real estate management business.

Pirelli RE SGR has assets under management of around EUR 5.7 bn across 18 real estate investment funds.

Meanwhile Pirelli RE's parent company Pirelli & Co. has launched a study to explore the feasibility of a plan to merge its real estate arm with fund manager Fimit. The move is aimed at creating a 'new entity in the asset management and real estate services sector'.

Pirelli's Real Estate unit is 56%-owned by Pirelli & Co. The property arm saw its losses widen to EUR 58 mln in the first nine months of the year from EUR 13 mln a year before. Revenues dropped 33% to EUR 199 mln in the third quarter, from EUR 296 mln in the same period in 2008. The Milan-listed property group completed EUR 658 mln worth of sales in the first nine months of 2009, and confirmed it intends to meet its year-end sales target of EUR 1 bn.