AIFI / ASSET CLASS

ASSET CLASS

Private Equity

Private Equity is defined as “the activity of investing in the risk capital of unlisted companies, with the objective of enhancing the value of the company being invested in with a view to its disposal within a medium to long term period” (AIFI Board of Directors resolution of 22 July 2004).

Market data and performance analyses in terms of IRR are carried out by our Research Office using the European Data Cooperative (EDC) platform, developed together with the main European national venture capital and private equity associations and Invest Europe.

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Venture Capital

Venture capital is defined as the investment activity in risk capital carried out by professional GPs and aimed at early-stage (seed and start-up) and later stage venture and expansion capital transactions. Strictly speaking, this refers only to investments in early-stage companies (seed, start-up and later stage).

Market data and performance analyses in terms of IRR are carried out by our Research Office using the European Data Cooperative (EDC) platform, developed together with the main European national venture capital and private equity associations and Invest Europe.

Also available is the in-depth study of the Italian venture capital market carried out by the Venture Capital Monitor, created in 2008 as a collaboration between AIFI and LIUC-Cattaneo University and active at the University’s Business School. It is mainly based on public sources and considers an extensive sample of players active in the venture capital chain, including informal and unstructured ones, normally excluded from European monitoring and methodology but which AIFI refers to in its studies.

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Private Debt

The new legislation on bonds and promissory notes has provided new opportunities for mutual funds that have merged into the new private debt fund market.

They are mutual funds whose investment policy focuses on debt financial instruments issued by companies, including bonds, commercial papers, other types of debt financial instruments, as well as loans.

The new entities have certain characteristics that are reminiscent, both in terms of legal structure and in terms of operations, of managers operating in the private equity sector.

For this reason, the term ‘private debt funds’ was used, on the one hand, to recall the assonance with the world of private equity and, on the other hand, to emphasise the main characteristic of the new players, i.e. investment in debt or hybrid securities and not pure risk capital.

Private debt market data is collected by our Research Office via a proprietary platform and can be accessed here.

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Infrastructure

Players in this asset class operate by acquiring controlling stakes in infrastructure, often related to transport and communication systems, water and energy facilities, and public infrastructures, including schools and nursing homes.

They can be divided into two main areas:

  • ‘greenfield’: financing of new works that have yet to be realised;
  • ‘brownfield’: acquisition of existing infrastructure, usually in privatisation processes.

AIFI has also set up a working table to represent this asset class with the aim of analysing the characteristics of investments in infrastructure, as well as making proposals to institutions to promote the development of this activity in the Italian market.