Alternative investment manager Tages is to acquire a 34% stake in Milan-based private equity investment holding company VAM Investments, a spokeswoman confirmed.
Under the agreement, Francesco Trapani, a Tages shareholder, deputy chairman and member of the board of directors, will make a 15% direct investment in the firm. Financial terms of the deal, which is to close in the fall, were not disclosed.
Tages and Mr. Trapani will acquire the stakes via a new share issue by VAM. Under the agreement, Tages will have the opportunity to increase its stake to 100% of VAM in the next three years. Marco Piana and Giuliano Palazzo, VAM managing partners, may also become shareholders in Tages.
Tages has €47 billion ($55.1 billion) in assets under management across liquid alternatives, infrastructure and distressed credit.
Mr. Trapani will become executive chairman of VAM Investments Group SpA and Mr. Piana will remain CEO.
Mr. Trapani "joined us at the beginning of last year to help expand our group into the private equity market," said Panfilo Tarantelli, founding partner and CEO of Tages, in a news release. "The partnership with VAM is a natural evolution of this strategy and enables us to offer Italian companies new opportunities in the private equity space. We continue to believe that alternative investments will be a long-term growth sector and that providing stable, institutional capital is the best way to build a diversified business."
