Mediobanca Private Banking expanded its offering in semi-liquid products for professional customers. 

In a statement on 29 June, it said the new initiative, developed in conjunction with well-established international investment funds, reinforces the distinctiveness of Mediobanca Private Banking's offering in private markets.

Compared to traditional investments in the real economy through closed end vehicles, semi-liquid products enable individual investors to commit capital faster and with more flexibility. This will allow Mediobanca's clients, the majority of which are Italian, to be more dynamic in their allocation and to access a higher number of counterparties across all asset classes. 

The first placement will be completed with the involvement of Apollo Global Management, a well-established alternative asset manager with approx. $598bn in assets under management.

The agreement with Apollo aims to provide the Bank's Ultra-High-Net-Worth clients with access to a broad private markets strategy and portfolio of investments built by Apollo over the past ten years. 

The introduction of semi-liquid products to Mediobanca Private Banking's offering represents a further innovation, which the Bank believes will allow the private markets component to be included in model portfolios more efficiently. In this way the traditional asset allocation model will be enriched with an alternative component which aims to enhance returns, combined with the objective of mitigating volatility and correlation with public markets.

"This partnership between Mediobanca Private Banking, leader in Italy in the offering of private markets solutions, and Apollo Global Management, a manager with proven experience in alternatives, testifies to a common desire to create innovation in the private markets sector, focusing on opportunities in funds that evolve high-potential investments into a new structure, for the benefit of customers", said Angelo Viganò, head of Mediobanca Private Banking.

"The development of investment solutions to address the needs of the Wealth Management industry is a strategic priority for Apollo. After years of investments in the Italian real economy, we are pleased to now enter the Italian private banking market with Mediobanca, which over the years has proved to be an innovator and precursor in the development of private markets offerings", said Apollo's Andrea Moneta, senior advisor, Italy, and operating partner