Cassa Depositi e Prestiti renews its commitment to support the growth of Italian companies, promoting an important tool to support access to credit. With an investment of 40 million euros, CDP will play the role of anchor investor in the Anthilia BIT III Fund. This is the third private debt1 fund promoted by Anthilia Capital Partners SGR – an independent Italian entrepreneurial reality dedicated to asset management on behalf of private and institutional clients -, dedicated to the Italian SME segment.
The Anthilia BIT III Fund, launched in November 2018, has a funding target of 350 million euros at least 50% to be allocated to micro, small and medium enterprises or to companies classified as Small Mid-Cap.
The investment policy of the fund provides for the selection, through a structured and independent process, firms that possess key characteristics such as: cash flow stability, sound and transparent governance, export orientation, stable and credible management and flexible cost structure.
Thanks to the investment by CDP, which joins that of other institutional investors, Anthilia BIT III will reach a total availability of over 245 million euros, to be allocated to support the growth of at least 45 companies. The Fund's intervention approach is in line with the CDP Business Plan which envisages, among others, specific lines of intervention to support SMEs and MidCaps through alternative channels to the banking one.
In particular, in addition to investing in highly diversified credit funds, CDP acts as anchor investor in minibond issuance transactions by medium-sized enterprises and supports the development of innovative asset classes such as Basket Bond transactions, having participated, since the beginning of 2019, in transactions for a total value of 165 million euro.
The operating model adopted by the Fund, complementary to the banking system, will make it possible to finance, through medium-long term investments, a large number of SMEs and MidCaps with average tickets of less than 10 million euros, typically not covered by CDP directly.
“The investment – he said Nunzio Tartaglia, head of the CDP Business Division – in the segment of diversified credit funds, it allows to support companies which, due to their size or the specific intervention, cannot be reached directly by CDP, for terms typically not covered by traditional financing channels. We hope the adoption of this additional "indirect" method of intervention will be able to attract new institutional investors in the various initiatives supported by CDP in the MidCap segment. We are particularly happy to be able to support the Anthilia BIT III Fund, which represents one of the most solid projects in the Italian panorama of alternative finance".
“Anthilia BIT III – he commented Giovanni Landi, executive vice president of Anthilia Capital Partners – represents our third initiative dedicated to private debt and the Italian entrepreneurial fabric, a market with strong potential and in which we have managed to establish ourselves – six years after the launch of our first fund – gaining a leadership position. We are proud to welcome the investment of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti in our third private debt fund, further support to Anthilia's mission in assisting the numerous Italian companies of excellence by supporting their growth and development path".
