Dekus is born, a real estate bigwig with Benetton properties

The company starts with two billion euro of valuable assets under management and a joint venture already signed with a new investor of international relevance. The prospect is to attract new partners focusing on the Italian real estate market.

This is the beginning for Dekus, a real estate management company founded by Mauro Montagner, who owns 80 per cent, and Fabio Provini, who owns the remaining 20 per cent. The starting point is a large part of the real estate portfolio of the four branches of the Benetton family, which have divided the assets previously concentrated in Edizione. The reorganisation was decided more than a year and a half ago with a double demerger involving both the real estate subsidiary Edizione Property and the reference holding company Edizione. In this way, a large part of the Ponzano Veneto real estate assets had been reallocated to the four branches of the dynasty, that of Giuliana, Carlo, Gilberto and Luciano, in order to identify different management and investment strategies.

The portfolio being divided contains iconic assets, while the shops of the Benetton group were excluded from the transaction. The operation was created precisely with the aim of making the management company independent from the shareholders, a sort of management buyout that is also open to other partners. The Benettons will remain with Dekus for two years, then the different branches of the Benetton family will be able to choose different strategies in the real estate field.

The Dekus company, a name that recalls the number (ten) of employees with whom it started up business between Milan and Ponzano, starts out with assets such as the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice, the Bulgari hotel in Piazza Augusto Imperatore in Rome, an office building in Corso Matteotti in Milan and numerous other prestigious assets in Paris, such as the property being redeveloped on the Champs Elysées that will be rented to Max Mara, and in Brussels. Among the assets under management in Venice is the Teatro del ridotto in Calle Vallaresso, an 18th-century jewel, with the Monaco and Grand Canal hotel and a major retail plate that includes five luxury boutiques including Dior and Tiffany.

"The first transaction in hospitality concerns a resort purchased in Puglia, in Fasano, which will be managed by Rocco forte Hotels and is a value add project. Two other projects are residences in Verona and a hotel in the centre of Florence," says Montagner, a leading figure in the real estate sector after having held the position of ceo in Edizione Property, and before that ceo of Allianz Real Estate Southern Europe and managing director of Morgan Stanley in Italy in the real estate area. Not only that. The decision to invest in Puglia, in a farmhouse that once renovated will have some eighty rooms, rides on the good momentum of the hospitality sector. The strategy of the branches of the Benetton family, not all of them but those that are concentrating on real estate, is in fact focused in particular on the hotel segment, on residential in all its forms, therefore from managed housing to student halls of residence, and on logistics. In the latter sector, an important development project concerns a logistics centre in Fiumicino, which will be the largest logistics park in Italy, adjacent to the airport. The strategy does not exclude foreign countries, where in the recent past the Dekus team has evaluated opportunities in Spain, specifically in the Balearic Islands, but also in London and again in Paris, opportunities that were then not evaluated as interesting.