Blackstone also opens its funds to private individuals (with Unicredit): returns of up to 12%.

Small Italian savers will now be able to participate in the world's largest private equity fund, hitherto only accessible to large professional and institutional investors. Blackstone, with its USD 1,100 billion in assets, opens the door to its (future) investments around the world: in Italy it now owns Autostrade, the Gardaland amusement park, the former real estate of Reale Mutua, and is among the backers of Versace.

Years ago, Stephen Schwartman, the founder of Blackstone, lamented that the endless era of low and even negative rates) was eating away at people's savings.

Now the mega-financier, who cheers for Donald Trump and likes to dress up as Taylor Swift for Christmas, debuts in Italy, restoring value to those eroded savings: he promises up to 12% returns per year.

The mega fund, led in Italy by Andrea Valeri, has announced a commercial agreement with UniCredit: Andrea Orcel's bank, which is committed to Commerzbank and BPM these days, will allow its mid- to high-end clients to subscribe to Blackstone Private Equity Strategies Fund (BXPE), offering them the opportunity to invest in private equity in Italy. BXPE is an actively managed semi-liquid open-ended alternative investment fund that offers broad exposure to the US mega fund's entire private equity platform through a diversified portfolio of high-growth companies.

The world's 'piggy bank' Italy is tempting: with private savings mostly tied up in current accounts or real estate, the Americans want to get their hands on it. And they do so with a mouth-watering offer: the fund has a yield on a quarterly basis of up to 3%. Which in times of falling rates and current accounts paying no interest is a viable alternative. Not least because, and this is the ace up their sleeve, the entry threshold is within reach of many: the minimum fee is 100,000 euros.