Whitehall funds' offer for Berenice closed-end office fund comprises a put option on 30% of the fund in favour of Italy's Unione Generale Immobiliare (UGI), a company indirectly owned by Italian entrepreneur Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone. On the other hand, UGI has a call option on the same stake, Italy's Consob, the authority responsible for regulating the Italian securities market, said in a statement. The option can be exercised from the settlement date, or 27 July, for five working days.

Whitehall funds' offer for Berenice closed-end office fund comprises a put option on 30% of the fund in favour of Italy's Unione Generale Immobiliare (UGI), a company indirectly owned by Italian entrepreneur Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone. On the other hand, UGI has a call option on the same stake, Italy's Consob, the authority responsible for regulating the Italian securities market, said in a statement. The option can be exercised from the settlement date, or 27 July, for five working days.

Analysts believe that Caltagirone is the one driving the bid for the Tecla and Berenice office funds, which have been the object of a bidding war between Pirelli RE/Morgan Stanley jv and Goldman Sachs' Whitehall funds, through its Zwinger Opco vehicle. 'If it goes through, the offer will probably be much more valuable for Caltagirone than for Whitehall. He is the real expert in the Italian market,' a real estate analyst told PropertyEU. Whitehall is offering EUR 678 per unit for Tecla office fund and EUR 725 for each unit of the Berenice fund, a 5.8% premium to the fund's net asset value at the end of 2006.

The two business partners said they are planning to create a 'strategic partnership aimed at creating a single investment platform, that is not exclusive, whose objective is to invest on the Italian real estate market through closed-end real estate funds'. UGI will have a veto power over matters including the extension of the duration of the fund, as well as the replacement of the fund manager, which is currently Pirelli RE.