MILAN-Rapidly restructuring Italian listed property funds group Aedes has closed its latest capital increase, consisting in a conversion of €296 million in bank debt into equity. The move came just weeks after a rights issue in mid-summer brought in €150 million, partly underwritten by its major shareholder, the Amenundi steel and farm machines group.

Aedes is a co-investor and asset manager of real estate funds, services and development with assets at end-December of €4.5 billion. The latest restructuring converted the debt into just over 50 million ordinary shares and 364,000 special shares, a kind of warrant with limited voting rights, convertible into ordinary stock. It thus boosts Aedes total outstanding equity to 1.1 million shares at a subscription price of €0.715 per share. This compares to the recent stock price around €0.25 which gives a current market capitalization of around €280 million.

The rights issue in summer was 74% subscribed after it offered 152 new shares for every 25 held at a price of €0.26, plus a free warrant. A holding company Vi-Ba picked up 26.33% of the issue. The firm and its associate Start Immobiliare are owned by Amenduni. Based in the southern Italian town of Bari and with offices in the northern city of Vicenza Amenduni Nicola is one of the largest producers of special steel, and also manufactures agricultural machines. Amenduni was instrumental in installing a new board earlier this year, but it changed again in September. Aedes CEO is now Francesco Montescani, with Paolo Ingrassia as deputy chairman focusing on foreign investment, finance and participations. Anna Paola Negri-Clementi is also deputy chairman, with a focus on legal issues. Chairman of the board is Tommaso Cartone.

The summer recapitalization was guaranteed by the same banking consortium involved in converting most of the debt, and was a pre-requisite for the second move. The banks, headed by Intesa Sanpaolo, Monte dei Paschi and UniCredit, guaranteed the rights issue but were not required to subscribe since the entire offer was taken up.