Patron Capital appoints Matteo Busà to lead €300m investment in Italy

Patron Capital has plans to invest €200 million to €300 million ($232 million to $348 million) from its funds in Italy.

The Pan-European institutional investor appointed Matteo Busà as a partner, to lead its investments in Italy.

Busà joins from GIC, the Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund, where he was a vice president. He spent 10 years with GIC in total, including eight in London, where he originated and managed investment opportunities across multiple countries and asset classes, working on both the debt and equity sides of the capital structure.

Prior to GIC, Busà spent four years working in real estate investment, at Pirelli Real Estate and then JER Partners.

During the second quarter of 2018 €1.7 billion ($1.98 billion, or 50 transactions) was invested in the Italian commercial real estate market (-40 percent compared to second quarter 2017). The volumes recorded from the beginning of the year amount to around €3.2 billion ($3.7 billion), confirming a drop (-35 percent) compared to the first half of 2017, a record year for the sector, according to BNP Paribas.

With €880 million ($1.02 biillion, -20 percent year-over-year), offices represented approximately 50 percent of total volumes in second quarter  2018. In the first six months, volumes for this asset class amounted to about €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion), with a decrease of 43 percent compared to 2017.

Retail enjoyed a positive performance in the first half of 2018 with more than  €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion), in line with the results for the same period of 2017. In second quarter  retail deals were closed to €500 million ($580 million, about 30 percent of the quarter's total in Italy).

Growth in Italian logistics continues with  €410 million ($476 million) semi-annual volumes more than doubled compared to 2017 thanks to the excellent result of around €200 million ($232 million) in second quarter  (+270 percent compared to second quarter 2017).

For the moment the growth in the hotel sector that started in 2014 has slowed down. With almost €140 million ($163 million) recorded during the second quarter 2018 investment has declined by around 50 percent  both on a quarterly and half-yearly basis.

Transactions for the asset classes included in the “other” category (RSA, student housing, data centers, barracks, and cinemas) were also lower than last year from €860 million ($999.3 million) in the first half of 2017 to the current €130 million ($151 million). Only one transaction in this category was recorded during the second quarter 2018.