Italian fund of funds to launch London office

Advanced Capital, a Milan-based private equity fund of funds manager, will launch a London office within the next few months as the opening stage of an ambitious international expansion strategy.

Robert Tomei, chief executive of Advanced Capital, said it will use the London office “to scout new talent and investment opportunities across geographical markets and new asset classes”. The firm is currently in recruitment mode, and no details of hires for the new office have yet been revealed.  

Tomei said the firm had “aggressive growth targets” which will result, in the medium term, in new offices in the US, the Middle East and Asia. “We strongly believe that the alternative and emerging markets are at the beginning of a long-term secular growth trajectory,” Tomei added.

Tomei is a former adviser on alternative investments and private placements at Merrill Lynch. Real Desrochers, head of the alternative investments division at US pension the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, is a special advisor to the firm assisting with the research, selection and monitoring of funds.

Advanced Capital raised Italy’s first-ever private equity fund of funds, the $39 million ACI fund, in 2000. It then closed successor fund ACII on €321 million and, in March this year, posted a €140 million first closing for ACIII.

In marketing materials, the firm claims ACI has achieved a multiple of 2.9x cash on realised investments to date. ACII, which has so far called down 30 percent of capital committed, has invested in 23 funds in total managed by the likes of Apollo Management, The Blackstone Group and Permira.