Bankinter Investment closed the first year of its new brand with more than 4.2 billion euros in alternative investments
The entity mobilises 2.3 billion euros of customer funds, which with the leverage effect implies a material investment of more than 4.2 billion euros.
Bankinter's investment banking business, which has been operating under the Bankinter Investment brand for a year, has launched 13 alternative investment vehicles to date.
Bankinter Investment is celebrating its first anniversary as Bankinter's new investment banking brand, an activity the Bank has been pursuing for the past six years. Since December 2016, Bankinter Investment has launched 13 alternative investment vehicles, attracting more than 2.3 billion euros of funds from private banking and institutional customers which, with the leverage effect, represents a material investment of more than 4.2 billion euros in these types of assets.
Within the next two years, Bankinter Investment estimates that it will have mobilised 3.5 billion euros, with a target investment of around 8.5 billion euros, therefore doubling the current figures.
As Íñigo Guerra, managing director of Bankinter and head of Bankinter Investment says, “We have become the leading platform for alternative investment in Spain, offering a differential service and adapted investment opportunities for our customers in this challenging environment."
During the past year, Bankinter Investment has structured and marketed two new funds: the fourth edition of Helia Renovables, which invests in renewable energies, a key sector in environmental sustainability; and Rhea Secondaries, a venture capital fund of funds that invests in secondary markets in Europe, carried out in collaboration with Access Capital Partners and currently in the marketing period.
The remaining vehicles are as follows:
- The three previous editions of the Helia Renovables venture capital fund.
- Socimi Atom, which invests in hotel assets and has been listed on Spain's alternative stock market (the MAB) since 2018.
- Socimi Ores, together with its version for the Portuguese market (Ores Portugal), which is focused on the acquisition and management of commercial real estate assets and has been listed on the MAB since 2017.
- The VStudent Aulis venture capital fund (since 2018), which focuses on land acquisition opportunities in the student residence segment for subsequent development and management.
- The Titan fund (since 2019), which invests in infrastructure in northern Europe.
- The MVB Fund (since 2019), a pioneering fund of funds that invests in the highest-potential technology companies in Silicon Valley and in which Bankinter is partnered by the entrepreneur and investor in new technologies, Martín Varsavsky.
- One-off operations in the real estate sector through the acquisition of trophy assets like the building at Plaza Cataluña 23 (Barcelona) and the commercial premises located at Calle Serrano 53 (Madrid).
Generating profitability and wealth
The target profitability for all vehicles is an IRR ranging from 6% to 15%, depending on the vehicle and investment type. However, as Íñigo Guerra says, "Our aim is not only to generate profitability for our customers but wealth for our country as well by promoting a kind of circular economy in investments whereby these and the capital gains they generate largely remain in the Spanish market ." In 2020 the Bank has distributed 215 million euros to its investors.
In short, diversified investment from more than 2,700 investors, mostly customers from the Bank's private banking segment but also partner promoters and the Bank itself which, demonstrating a clear alignment of interests, has invested 207 million euros alongside customers in each and every vehicle.
In an environment of low interest rates and high volatility in the markets, which is particularly challenging for more traditional investing, Bankinter Investment maintains a value proposition that seeks opportunities in niches that were previously mainly reserved for large institutional investors, in many cases foreign, with a view to making them accessible to Spanish and Portuguese high net worth families and institutions. The Bank therefore seeks out the best possible professional manager for each type of investment, which co-invests alongside Bankinter in the vehicle managed.
Bankinter Investment complements its standard business with a range of other services for customers, such as advice on mergers and acquisitions, investment in real estate, debt capital markets (bond issues, private placements on the alternative fixed income market, promissory note programmes, etc.), equity capital markets (IPOs, capital increases), and structured financing: investment operations, balance sheet restructuring, shareholding reorganisation, optimisation of corporate structures, etc.
