Rome, 8 January 2014: Fabrica SGR, the Italian real estate asset management company, and its partner CBRE Global Investors, the global real estate investment management firm, are to launch a property fund for Cassa Forense following a competitive public tender.
The Cicerone Fund, which has been seeded with € 200 million, is expected to reach € 1 billion in the medium term. The fund will focus on improving value for Cassa Forense’s direct investment portfolio and will invest into Italian property and into property in other European Union countries.
The fund will benefit from the broad geographic asset diversification, as property markets among European countries are not correlated.
In the sourcing of assets and sector and regional weighting outside the Italian market, Fabrica will be advised by CBRE Global Investors, who they formed a partnership with in 2012.
Cassa Forense is the National Social Security Pension Fund of lawyers, which has been active for over 60 years, representing more than 170,000 members with pension assets of €7 billion.
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Alberto Bagnoli, Chairman of Cassa Forense, said: “Fabrica and CBRE Global Investors were selected through a public tender of 10 of the best national and international players. Cicerone Fund is aimed at enhancing Cassa Forense real estate investments by increasing the international diversification in line with our asset and liability management requirements”.
Marco Doglio, Managing Director of Fabrica SGR, said: “Cicerone is our fourth real estate fund dedicated to a pension fund and the first with a pan-European asset allocation. We are proud to have been selected by Cassa Forense and, together with CBRE Global Investors, we aim to define a standard for all Italian institutional investors that want to invest abroad”.
Florencio Beccar, Country Manager for Italy of CBRE Global Investors, said: “We are very pleased to be able to provide Cassa Forense the expertise from our global platform. Along with Fabrica we are intensifying our efforts to make the diversification of real estate investments easier for Italian investors, so that they can reach the best opportunities in world markets, independent of the Italian business cycle”.
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Fabrica Immobiliare is an Italian real estate asset management company focused on real estate funds working since 2005 and controlled by Caltagirone Group and Monte dei Paschi di Siena Group.
Fabrica is among the leading Italian players: at the end of 2013, the company managed 13 real estate funds for c.a. € 2,5 Bn of total assets under management.
CBRE Global Investors is a global real estate investment management firm with $87.6 billion in assets under management* as of September 30, 2013. The firm sponsors investment programs across the risk/return spectrum for investors worldwide.
CBRE Global Investors is an independently operated affiliate of CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG). It harnesses the research, investment sourcing and other resources of the world’s premier, full-service commercial real estate services and investment company for the benefit of its investors. CBRE Group, Inc. has approximately 37,000 employees (excluding affiliates) in more than 300 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. For more information about CBRE Global Investors, please visit
www.cbreglobalinvestors.com.
* Assets under management (AUM) refers to fair market value of real estate-related assets with respect to which CBRE Global Investors provides, on a global basis, oversight, investment management services and other advice, and which generally consist of properties and real estate-related loans; securities portfolios; and investments in operating companies, joint ventures and in private real estate funds under its fund of funds program. This AUM is intended principally to reflect the extent of CBRE Global Investors’ presence in the global real estate market, and its calculation of AUM may differ from the calculations of other asset managers.
Cassa Forense is the National Social Security Pension Fund of lawyers, which has been active for over 60 years, representing more than 170,000 members with pension assets of €7 billion.
