Clessidra holds €320m first close for restructuring fund

Alessia Argentieri
27 September 2019

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Italian private equity firm Clessidra has held a €320m first close for Clessidra Restructuring Fund (CRF), its first vehicle dedicated to bank credits, with a special focus on unlikely to pay (UTP) exposures.

Unquote understands that the fund was launched with a €600m hard-cap.

With this new vehicle, the GP intends to diversify its investment strategy and further expand its business scope by entering the bank credit segment.

CRF is structured in two separate compartments: a credit section and a finance unit. The credit section includes the exposures provided to 14 Italian companies by 10 banks, including Amco (formerly SGA), BancoBPM, Banca Cremasca e Mantovana, Banco Desio, Credito Padano, BNL, BPER, La Cassa di Ravenna, MPS and UBI Banca.

The finance compartment comprises the capital raised by the fund from several Italian institutional investors – including pension funds, banks, holding companies and family offices – which will be used for the relaunch and development of the companies in its portfolio.

These are medium-sized Italian companies, with overall revenues of approximately €1.4bn and aggregated EBITDA of around €50m, that are currently undergoing a financial and industrial restructuring, despite a strong business model and high-growth potential.

The fund's management team will be led by Federico Ghizzoni and Giovanni Bossi, alongside Massimiliano Fossati, Silvio Longari and Luca Marson.

The GP was advised by Studio Legale Pedersoli on legal and fiscal issues, and by EY on the fund's structuring.

Founded in 2003, Clessidra is part of Italmobiliare, the Italian investment holding company of the Pesenti family. The firm is currently investing its third buyout fund, Clessidra Capital Partners III, which held a final close on €607.3m in December 2016.