New Italian asset manager launched to fill industry gap

Three former Cordea Savills directors have launched Endeavour Asset Management, Italy's first international real estate asset manager. The founders of the Rome-based company are Dominic White, Emmanuel Bordignon and Andrea Migliore. With over a dozen staff in the Italian capital and a satellite office in London, Endeavour has seen its assets under management (AUM) grow to over EUR 850 mln since opening at end-2009, and plans are to bring AUM to EUR 1 bn by the end of the year.

White, who in the past set up Henderson Global Investors' and Cordea Savills' Italian real estate businesses, told PropertyEU in an interview that the new company will seek to take advantage of a gap in asset management services offered to professional investors. 'We provide both strategic and hands-on property asset management and aim to add value to portfolios, and there are very few people doing this well at the moment in Italy,' he said.

'In addition to this, we see that the international financial community has problems to interface in the Italian market and Endeavour, with its connection to the foreign community and strong knowledge of the local industry, can fill in the gaps.'

White also believes that the company's independence is one of its main strengths. 'We are not owned by a property company, bank or other financial institution, therefore conflicts of interest aren't a problem because we don't have an in-house portfolio that competes with our clients' assets. We offer a pure third party asset management solution.'

White is based in London and focuses on foreign clients. Endeavour Asset Management's other two founders have operated in leading institutions including Deutsche Bank, Cordea Savills and Sovigest and are headquartered in Rome. In the next two-three months, Endeavour is planning to open a new office in Milan, with an additional staff of four. 'Our target clients are international and local investors although at the moment the majority of our partners are Italian property companies and private groups', White added.

Endeavour's portfolio currently comprises over 100 buildings across Italy, with a majority of office properties and some retail and logistics assets as well as bank branches.

Endeavour's launch comes at a time that the international community is looking with more interest to invest in Italy. 'Opportunistic funds have already made a return to the market and as soon as the property cycle moves further, we expect an increasing amount of core investors to turn to Italy in search of opportunities,' White said.