

A closed-end Italian real estate fund managed by Savills Investment Management has sourced a €72 million term loan from ING Real Estate Finance, secured by a portfolio of prime shop units in Milan and Florence.


Boccaccio, the closed-end fund, opted for the seven-year loan to finance three retail properties in Milan – located at Piazza San Babila, Corso Venezia and Via Verri – as well as a property on Via Panzani in Florence.
The Boccaccio fund was sold in January by Futura Investment Management, an affiliate of Luxembourg-based Optimum Asset Management, to four European institutional investors. The loan was agreed alongside the acquisition.
The Italian arm of ING’s property lending business provided the loan at a conservative loan-to-value ratio of 30 percent, with a bullet repayment profile agreed. ING is the sole lender in the deal.
“This important transaction confirms the firm commitment of ING on the Italian commercial real estate finance market,” said Michele Monterosso, co-head real estate finance Italy at ING. “We have a specific focus on prime income-generating properties located in strategic retail destinations capable of attracting long-term core investors.”
“We are very encouraged by the strong interest shown by long term international investors and main financing banks to invest in prime real estate in Italy and see it as an evidence of their confidence in the long term perspective of the Italian economy,” added Giuseppe Oriani, CEO of Savills Investment Management SGR.