Intesa Sanpaolo launches its first Private Debt Fund dedicated to SMEs

The Intesa Sanpaolo Group is launching its first Private Debt Fund to support the development of SMEs and Mid-Caps.

Using increasingly evolved forms of finance, the Group is reinforcing its positioning in support of the real economy in order to promote the growth, internationalisation, generational renewal and sustainable transition of small and medium-sized Italian enterprises.

The outcome of the collaboration between Intesa Sanpaolo and Eurizon Capital Real Asset, the new Fund has an initial target of raising €150 million from institutional investors and also involves direct investment by the Bank.

The Fund’s intervention model is based on the synergy between the Group’s divisions – Asset Management, Banca dei Territori and IMI Corporate & Investment Banking – and will raise resources to be invested as follows:

• up to 50% in business clients of the Banca dei Territori Division, in co-lending on structured transactions of the IMI Corporate & Investment Banking
• the remaining part shall be invested in market transactions according to the typical Eurizon Capital Real Asset co-investment model, as well as direct investments, the latter up to a maximum of 10% of the total amount of the Fund

Eurizon Capital Real Asset, an Asset Management Division company focused on alternative asset classes, will be responsible for the selection, analysis, approval and monitoring of the investments that will become part of the Fund.

For Intesa Sanpaolo, product innovation is a priority in order to meet the increasingly evolved needs of businesses and investors, and the project is part of the initiatives of the 2022-2025 Business Plan.

Private Debt is a sector displaying strong growth: in Italy in 2022, it reached €3.2 billion of investments, an increase of 45% on the previous year.