US real estate investment firm Capstone Equities is making its first foray into Italy with an offer to acquire a stake in the Italian closed-end Europa Immobiliare 1 fund.
US real estate investment firm Capstone Equities is making its first foray into Italy with an offer to acquire a stake in the Italian closed-end Europa Immobiliare 1 fund.
New York-based Capstone Equities is to make an offer for a maximum of 37,423 units representing a 33% interest in the fund, which is managed by Vegagest and is listed on the Italian stock exchange.
The offered price of €710 per unit represents a 22.4% premium to the units' trading price on 4 November and values the stake at €26.5 mln.
'The low trading volumes that characterise the fund and, more generally, all Italian listed real estate funds, may make it particularly complex for unitholders to exit their investment in the short term,' Capstone said in a statement. 'The offer will then provide unitholders with an opportunity to liquidate all or part of their investment before the end of the fund's life.'
The vehicle, with an initial maturity at year-end 2014, could see its term extended to December 2019 at the next shareholders' meeting, Capstone noted.
The vehicle owns a real estate portfolio valued at €177 mln at end-June 2014, against debt of €70 mln provided by Banca Carige and ING Real Estate Finance. Its portfolio includes barracks and logistics units in a number of Italian regions such as Piedmont, Lazio and Lombardy, as well as the Croydon Colonnades leisure park in the UK and a commercial asset in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Capstone Equities is being advised by Advicorp; Georgeson, Legance and BNP Paribas.