Fundraising

F2i beats target for Fund II

The Italian firm has raised more than €1.2bn for the three-year-old vehicle with about 40% of commitments coming from international LPs.

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Milan-based infrastructure fund manager Fondo Italiani per le Infrastrutture (F2i) has reached a final close on its second vehicle on €1,242.5 million.

Launched in July 2012, Fund II had a target of €1.2 billion. Limited partners (LPs) in the vehicle, which comprise both existing and new investors, include banks, banking foundations, pension funds, funds of funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies, F2i said in a statement.

Known investors in the fund include Fondazione Cariplo, Unicredit Group, Intesa Sanpaolo, Inarcassa, Compagnia di San Paolo, Ardian, Cassa Italiana Previdenza e Assistenza Geometri, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, Fondazione Banco di Sardegna and La Cassa Forense, according to Infrastructure Investor Research & Analytics.

International LPs, most prominently from Asia and Europe, committed about €500 million to the vehicle, F2i said.

“In our dialogue with investors, we have clearly perceived a renewed confidence in our country and a strong appreciation of our approach to value creation and growth strategy for our portfolio of infrastructure companies,” commented Renato Ravanelli, the firm’s chief executive.

The news comes less than two weeks after Italian infrastructure veteran and F2i founder Vito Gamberle joined London-based fund manager Quercus Assets Selection (Quercus) as chairman. His move followed Quercus’s June launch of a €150 million fund, targeted at domestic and international institutional investors, which will focus on building a 300-megawatt (MW) portfolio of Italian wind assets.

Earlier this year, F2i’s first fund divested 49 percent of F2i Aeroporti, which holds stake in Milan Malpensa and Linate Airports (35.7 percent), Naples Airport (70 percent) and Turin Airport (54.5 percent) as well as indirect holdings in Bergamo and Bologna Airports, to France’s Ardian and Crédit Agricole.

F2i’s second vehicle also owns an 8.6 percent share in Milan Malpensa and Linate Airports.