By Matteo Lana
Founded in 2007, Anthilia Capital Partners SGR Spa is an Italian investment management house focused on private and institutional asset management with c.a. 1.5 bln€ of assets managed / advised.
Find out more about Anthilia SGR at https://anthilia.it/
Mr. Colantonio, thank you for accepting our invitation to this interview, could you please tell us more about your academic and professional background?
I obtained a bachelor’s degree in political economy at La Sapienza in Rome, I also attended the Erasmus program in Sweden and multiple post degree courses in Spain and France. After graduation I started my career in management consulting at Arthur D. Little with a focus on Oil & Gas. After that I moved to ENAV where I worked on the acquisition of Vitrociset (106 EURm). At 27 years old I joined Anthilia Capital Partners, where I started as a financial analyst. I was later assigned by the Board of Directors to manage risk management function. In 2014 the Company Board asked me to manage the business development and supervise all relationships with Institutional Investors.
What is your day-to-day activity, and which one do you consider most important one?
Product development focuses on thinking and designing new products starting from a particular client need / market opportunity while leveraging on internal investment competence. The main goal is to offer a highly specialised product to fill a market GAP.
Private debt is one of the main business lines at Anthilia following the launch of the fourth fund which raised more than 500 EURm. Back in 2013 which were the main reasons that motivated you to invest in this asset class?
We grasped the opportunity of entering this market because of a new regulation introduced in 2012 by the Monti Cabinet. The regulation provides tax exemptions for bond-issuance costs for non-listed companies equalising them to listed ones. This helped SMEs to issue bonds with lower costs and to obtain debt from sources other than banks. This was a huge opportunity for us because banks had to reduce exposure to riskier loans as BASEL II and III made “lending to SMEs” more costly for them in terms of RWAs.
Anthilia mainly invests in companies with high margins, high cash flows and strong focus on exports. Beyond that, how are you able to value the qualitative elements such as the management quality and the transparence of the corporate governance?
In private capital one of the most important elements is building a strong relationship with companies and entrepreneurs. We obviously look at the numbers behind every deal, but understanding people is also fundamental. Starting with the due diligence, you can easily determine whether a company is completely transparent. Moreover, after gaining some experience, it is not very difficult to spot when a business plan is hardly achievable and whether financial resources are allocated as planned.
Anthilia operates with amazing companies in Italy. To what extend have they changed between 2013 and 2021? What is the most important characteristic of a successful company?
The key point which contributes to uncover company success is “flexibility”. This is even more important than management. Being flexible means investing in R&D, developing new products to increase market share and planning cost at best. We take a close look at supporting companies with a strong focus on exports because if you are flexible you can compete. Being able to operate in different markets is simply the result of an adequate level of flexibility.
What is the competitive advantage of Anthilia compared to other Private Debt investors in Italy and Europe?
We focus on transactions between 5 and 15 million euros and therefore we do not directly compete with international Private Debt players that target larger deals. However, our competitive advantage with other Italian and international players is that we are highly focused on our domestic market. We can provide tailor made solutions to our clients in a short period of time as we are one of the most active domestic players. In fact, we processed more than 400 opportunities in 8 years. Entrepreneurs understand that if they deliver adequate and thorough information, we can help them properly, with an ad-hoc lending solution.
Do you see reasons to expand Anthilia’s business to Private Equity?
Our goal is to provide the best support to Italian SMEs. Private Equity might be a new piece in our strategy for the future. Overall, we stick to the concept of specialization and leadership in the SME market segment.
What suggestions would you give to a member of BSPEC?
To become an investor, you can follow many different paths, even though some are obviously much more direct. As my background shows, there are multiple ways to reach your goal. My suggestion is to understand your goals; you do not need to follow the crowd but to be truthful to yourself and do what really makes you passionate every day. If you understand what makes you happy, then you can be successful.
Author: Matteo Lana
Editor: Konstantin Brandt
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