Rome, 22 December 2021
Gardant Investor SGR – the asset management company of the Gardant Group, specialised in alternative investment solutions dedicated to institutional investors focused on the credit sector – has closed its first credit fund with a collection of EUR 500 million from institutional investors.
The Fund proposes itself to the market with a long-term investment strategy, and aims at two distinct areas of focus, both strategic for the Italian economy. On the one hand, the Fund will invest in credit and direct lending to Italian SMEs, both industrial and real estate, thus contributing to and supporting the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery. On the other hand, the Fund will also invest in companies/assets structurally functional to the relaunch of the economy itself, for example in relation to infrastructure projects.
“We are very proud of the significant response we have received from the market,” Guido Lombardo, CEO of Gardant Investor SGR, said, “and of the interest we have attracted. Strengthened by a team with many years of experience, the company aims to grow with the development of active funds whose objective is to invest either in impaired credit exposures, of a banking or leasing nature, or – as in this case – with funds specialised by asset and by sector. Over the last 5 years – first as a division within Credito Fondiario, and then as an independent SGR part of Gruppo Gardant – we have successfully invested in this type of opportunity for a total amount of over EUR 1 billion.”
Mirko Briozzo, CEO of Gardant, added: “In designing Gardant, we wanted to create an operator which, by virtue of its business model, would be able to configure itself as the only one in Italy capable of operating both as a fund manager/investor and as an integrated credit manager, two activities which are strongly synergic and which allow us to offer our investors the best service. We can proudly say that we are succeeding and that the market has welcomed our project.”
Gardant Investor SGR – led by Antonino Turicchi and Guido Lombardo, respectively Chairman and CEO of the company – was established on 1 August 2021 following the spin-off of the activities related to the NPE sector of Credito Fondiario, which led to the birth of the Gardant Group. As of today, Gardant represents one of the main operators on the Italian market of impaired and illiquid loans, active in the debt purchasing and debt servicing sector. The Group’s new organisation has focused its debt purchasing strategy on Gardant Investor SGR, which therefore benefits from the origination, underwriting, management and servicing capabilities of the entire holding company, which – in addition to SGR – also includes companies dedicated to master and special servicing activities: Master Gardant, Special Gardant and Gardant Liberty Servicing.
In this context, Gardant Investor SGR – which aims to position itself on the market as a reference partner in Italy for investors interested in taking advantage of the opportunities in this particular sector – is developing its strategy independently from the holding company, but in synergy with the structure of contacts, professionals, datawarehouse and experience of the entire Gardant Group, which today can count on around 340 professionals and manages a total of around EUR 45 billion of credits, with over EUR 20 billion on which it operates as a special servicer, a track record of over EUR 1.2 billion of investments in 5 years and 8 years of continuous growth.
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Gardant S.p.A.
Gardant S.p.A. is an Italian company, with registered office in Rome, and is the parent company of the Gardant Group, which is being set up following the reorganisation and demerger of debt servicing and debt purchasing activities from Credito Fondiario. Today the Group is one of the leaders in the credit management sector in Italy, with a unique business model: it is both Debt Servicer (DS) and Asset Manager / Debt Purchaser (DP) and operates in all asset classes related to banking and leasing receivables (performing, UTPs, NPLs).
For further information:
Daniele Biolcati
Tel. +39 337 1689124
Email: daniele.biolcati@gardant.eu
SEC Newgate
Daniele Pinosa, +39 335 7233872, daniele.pinosa@secnewgate.it
Michele Bon, +39 338 6933868, michele.bon@secnewgate.it
Fabio Santilio, +39 339 8446521, fabio.santilio@secnewgate.it
Chiara Andreotti, +39 340 3613320, chiara.andreotti@secnewgate.it