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Coima Sgr - an independent manager of real estate investment funds on behalf of Italian and international institutional investors - has completed the capital raising for the “Coima Opportunity Fund II”, or COF II, reaching the expected target of €500 million with the already agreed additions of the co-investment and the option to increase the subscriptions, bringing the total amount of capital raised to over €650 million. The law firm Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners and the tax firm Maisto e Associati assisted Coima Sgr for the capital raising for the COF II Fund.
The investment capacity of the fund, including the financial leverage, is over €1.5 billion. In addition, the cornerstone investors, the most relevant investors with subscriptions of at least €150 million, and Coima Res both have the right to co-invest, where proposed by Coima Sgr, further increasing the investment capacity.
In detail, Coima Res, thanks to its collaboration with Coima Sgr, will have the opportunity to invest, together with the cornerstone investors of COF II. In this way, the listed Coima Res will have the opportunity to increase its exposure to development projects, potentially broadening its performance profile for its shareholders.
The fund represents the largest vehicle of discretionary real estate investment raised in Italy, with the presence of primary international investors, Asian and North American investors represent more than 90% of the fund, with the remaining portion represented by the principal Italian Institutional investors and Coima Sgr itself. The quality and diversity of the institutional partners of the fund has allowed the creation of a unique platform in terms of national and international experience and best practices. The Coima Opportunity Fund II follows the completion of investments on behalf of the Coima Opportunity Fund I, with an expected net return (IRR) for investors of over 12%.
The strategy of COF II provides an investment program within Italy’s borders dedicated to upgrading existing buildings and to development operations with the aim of bridging the gap between supply and demand in each area of use with a particular focus on the product for the tertiary sector. As part of the implementation of the investment program, the Coima Opportunity Fund II will consider direct and indirect investments in multiannual regeneration programs with reference to the real estate portfolios and the ability to strengthen and expand the fund’s role as strategic partner for the banking, insurance, industrial and public sectors.
"The Italian territory represents a strategic natural resource and one of the competitive factors in a policy of economic development - Manfredi Catella, Founder & CEO of Coima Sgr said - Our commitment, together with our institutional partners, is to contribute investments that can foster sustainable development with an additional positive impact on the economy and on local communities. With this fund, the largest in Italy, we have created an important vehicle which, through a fruitful and constructive collaboration with strategic partners, operators, banks, insurance companies, institutions and bodies, will be able to promote projects of heritage innovation of the real estate of Italian cities".
The management team of Coima Sgr, together with the development and property management teams of Coima Srl, has developed a Sustainable Innovation Task Force which has launched a research and development program dedicated to product innovation with reference to the likely future demand of users with regards to environmental and social sustainability and to technological applications, particularly related to digitalization.
Coima Sgr has started a classification process for the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performances of the Coima Opportunity Fund II using the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) - which will be formalized in 2019. More and more institutional investors include the ESG performance reviews in their investment processes. This tool represents a global framework that investors can use in analyzing the ESG risks, improving the return on their investments.
The Coima Opportunity II Fund has already closed a number of acquisitions for more than 30% of its investment capacity and is in the process of deepening a pipeline of more than 1 billion. The current investments include the acquisition of two strategic sites, both located in the district of Porta Nuova in Milan with a total area of more than 100,000 sq m of gross surfaces.
In detail, acquisitions include the Porta new Bonnet, through the acquisition - in a joint venture with Coima Res - of the former headquarters of Unilever, with an integral redevelopment project carried out with the British architecture firm PLP, and the Porta Nuova Garibaldi, through the acquisition from the City of Milan of two areas in Via Melchiorre Gioia, near Porta Nuova, where the construction of buildings with a tertiary purpose is anticipated. The designer will be selected through an architectural competition.
The new Coima headquarters actually completes the Porta Nuova project in Milan, one of Europe’s most important urban regeneration projects. The building developed by Coima, with 2,400 sq m over 5 floors, was designed by MC A Architects and the interiors were designed by Coima Image. The Coima HQ, a model of sustainability, are Leed Platinum certified and use 15% materials and products certified Cradle-to-Cradle® (C2C), based on the circular economy concept. These products, used both for building and for the interior finishing (flooring, carpeting, interior blinds, counters and stools), ensure future recyclability without using new natural resources, as well as the wholesomeness of the materials for the benefit of the people in the spaces occupied. Coima has also adopted a “plasticless” and “paperless” policy: the offices are equipped with a sorted recycling point and with a filtered and purified water distribution point.
The headquarters were designed as a unique model in which simplicity and minimalism, features of Milan’s great architectural culture, are woven into the complex DNA: a transparent greenhouse on the edge of the park, enclosed on the northern and southern sides by two sheets of bark defines the building’s spatial and material perception. The image of the bark is achieved thanks to the two laminated wooden beam systems, which enclose and protect the glass and steel building, emphasizing the relationship of continuity between internal and external which is defined by alternating full and empty spaces. The regular repetition of vertical wooden materials, along the two-diverging northern and southern paths, continues over the western side, until it opens up in the adjacent public space. Mario Cucinella, founder of MC A Archtiects talks about the project: “By exploring the subject of transparency, we wanted to focus on simplicity, on a sense of rhythm and order, to reaffirm a more human urban environment compared to the macro development upwards of the surrounding buildings”.
The Coima offices are spaces conceived and designed around people. Since the initial stages of the project, Coima Image involved the entire staff of the Coima platform, starting with a survey conducted for two months, analyzing the effective presence of people on site, the demands of the various business areas, and the expectations of individuals, with the goal of creating a “tailor made office”. The results inspired the interior and space design: no traditional office for top management, no fixed location for greater mobility and interaction among people, a plurality of work settings in support of different activities, ensuring both concentration as well as collaborative activities. The relaxation area on the last floor of the building, including the Coima Café with a terrace overlooking the park, encourages the exchange of know-how and socialization. The CEO of Coima Image, Alida Catella, defines it as “inclusive interior design: a design where participation and contamination of different artistic languages generate personal satisfaction and well-being, thus increasing performance. When we talk about satisfaction and well-being, we bring the subject to sustainability because sustainability also means removal, eliminating the superfluous, focusing attention on priorities and on the interaction of relations amongst individuals”.
