Hourglass turns twenty. After investments exceeding 1.3 billion, the Europa-Corriere.it operation begins

clessidra looks to Europe. Twenty years after being founded by Claudio Sposito, the private investment fund has largely exceeded the threshold of one billion euros in interventions (increase) and plans the foreign expansion to be carried out starting from the second half of 2023. For seven years, after the death of the founder, Clessidra changed hands: today entirely controlled by the Italmobiliare holding, led by Carlo Pesenti in the role of managing director, while Federico Ghizzoni, j ceo of Unicredit, president of Clessidra capital credit. When ownership changed, Clessidra had fund 2 active. Since then fund 3 has been closed. Fund collection 4 is now open. Today, the original assets of equityinterventions on debt and, more recently, in the sector of factoringwith a new company entrusted to Gabriele Piccini, the former country manager for Italy in Ghizzoni’s Unicredit.

Numbers in hand Clessidra is now worth around 300 million of investments in distressedthe fund is being collected Private debt (reached the first closing to 130 million has a goal of 250 million which he expects to reach shortly), while in Private equity the fourth fund is currently being funded and should close shortly at 600 million, without considering the investments in fund 3 and the 150 million loans of Clessidra Factoring. Overall, Clessidra has outstanding investments of around 1.3 billion euros, out of a total of the Italmobiliare holding of more than 3 billion. A threshold which, in order to be further developed, needs new markets.

Clessidra – says Carlo Pesenti – is concluding a cycle. A cycle perhaps longer than usual, because it is characterized by two years of pandemic, but in recent months we have carried out a long process of rethinking, renewing strategies to adapt to an overall context that has changed. changed the orientation of the banks, so much so that we have opened a new asset management company for the capital credit and a company of factoring, and also the attitude of investors is no longer the same as when we started, not to mention geographies and geopolitics. Italy remains a country of great opportunities, but it is necessary, we believe, to integrate and expand our own network. We look at a wider geography. I am thinking of France, Spain, the Mediterranean, the areas where Italian companies are more present and where it is possible to hypothesize future networks. Our aim is to grow, to increase the base of our interest perimeter and also to attract different investors.

There is a strategic theme that suggests going beyond domestic boundaries. On private markets – underlines Federico Ghizzoni – investors are increasingly sensitive to diversification and it makes no difference whether they are Italian or foreign investors. A platform specialized in a single country will at best have only a minimal breakdown of investable assets. If, on the other hand, the platform has a European scope, it will obviously increase the propensity to invest. There are investors who do not disregard geographical diversification. The rationale therefore is to broaden the investor base in order to be able to increase the size of the funds. So, whether it is equity or debt the idea precisely to start exploring a geographical growth of Clessidra, maintaining in theequity our prerogatives, that is to have the majority in the medium-sized companies we enter.

The industrial vocation. Numbers are central to any financial assessment but, says Ghizzoni, compared to the past, we have carried out a very in-depth analysis of the market segments. it is useless to engage in already consolidated areas, we are looking for room for growth. We work a lot on the project. If, on the other hand, we talk about debt, we are witnessing an evolution of products. We start from an assumption: to offer what businesses need. That is, products that are alternative and complementary to the offer that comes from the banking universe.

According to Hourglass, the locusts are dead. The funds that plundered the companies are part of an archaic anecdote, no longer current. Today, says Pesenti, when we analyze a company we immediately identify the levers of value creation, we try to imagine the growth potential. Managerialization, international development, the acquisitions made are decisive elements in the initial evaluation, but we also consider the moment of theexit, when we are going to allocate that company in a given market to interested operators. Scrigno seems to me an exemplary case of our approach. After three years we sold a company that was industrially perfect. In the agri-food sector, the Argea nel vino project has seen us protagonists of various aggregations, such as Botter, Mondo del Vino, Cantine Zaccagni, so much so that today Argea is a group that has doubled in size and presents itself in a different way. The same thing in the lighting with L&S with whom we have made some add on and today it is a reality with plants in China and Germany. L&S and Argea are global, well managed, interesting companies.

The trend ESG from a fashion phenomenon has become indispensable: In Europe, sustainability is more integrated into the processes of business compared to the rest of the world, including the United States. For Clessidra, a strategic reference in the creation of environmental, social and governancePesenti says.

An important change. In finance, 10-15 years ago, it was not so central – recalls Ghizzoni -. Today it is also decisive for finance, for the simple reason that more and more, from investors to savers, there is the will to give money to those who rank ESG compliant. In all the operations that we have carried out since the fund’s inception, we have agreed with the company, before disbursing, objectives in the ESG area. It is not possible for the investment committee to approve a commitment without there being clear, achievable objectives and if we go to the end of the investment, the same management (The team investment fund) will not have fully recognized the return on investment if the objective has not been achieved. Worldwide, in the industry total ofasset management, 40% invested in ESG products. In 2016 it was practically zero. Hourglass far ahead.

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