AnaCap acquires €200mn Italian CQS loan portfolio
AnaCap Financial Partners (“AnaCap”), a leading specialist European private equity firm and active investor in the Italian market, today announces the successful acquisition and refinancing of a portfolio of salary and pension guaranteed loans (“CQS”) with a face value of over €200mn.
Originated by one of the largest Italian banks, these loans were initially securitised in 2016. In July 2019, AnaCap acquired the equity in the securitization and in June 2020 AnaCap exercised their right to acquire the underlying assets. This is an asset class well known to AnaCap and represents its second investment in a CQS portfolio following a public market transaction in December 2013.
The portfolio acquired is highly diversified with more than 28,000 CQS loans. CQS loans are widely viewed as one of the safer asset types in Italy as the borrowers are primarily public sector employees and pensioners, with this portfolio further benefitting from over 6 years seasoning.
As a nimble mid-market investor with a deep understanding of the Italian market, a strong network of local partners and extensive experience in complex structuring of transactions, AnaCap has proven again why it is well-positioned to complete investments in this and other specialist asset classes.
AnaCap has also been actively investing now in Italy for almost 8 years, completing 25 investments with an aggregate face value of c.€20bn across performing and non-performing debt and real estate.
Konstantin Karchinov, Managing Director at AnaCap, commented:
“We continue to see attractive mid-market investment opportunities across the credit spectrum in the Italian market. AnaCap has been a very active investor in the Italian market for almost 8 years now and our experience and knowledge of the CQS product enabled us to deploy capital even during a period of market uncertainty.”
Simmons & Simmons LLP advised AnaCap for this transaction and acted as drafting counsel and Citi provided senior financing.
Simone Lucatello, Partner at Simmons & Simmons, commented:
“We are extremely proud to have contributed to the success of this important deal which demonstrates once more the capacity of AnaCap to play a key role in the Italian credit market.”