Gruppo Banca Leonardo – a rapidly growing European investment bank

The Italian bank Gruppo Banca Leonardo was acquired in April 2006 by an investor group led by Gerardo Braggiotti, formerly a Senior Partner at Lazard, and consisting of Eurazeo, CNP, IFIL, Fondiaria-SAI, Torreal and Allianz. Eurazeo invested 93 million euros in Gruppo Banca Leonardo in April 2006, and an additional 73 million euros in April 2007. Eurazeo owns 19.6% equity stake in Gruppo Banca Leonardo, but according to Italian banking regulation, Eurazeo’s voting rights are limited to 15%. The bank’s total equity amounts to 878 million euros.

	Business activity

The bank’s operations are focused on three activities:

• mergers and acquisitions advisory in europe;
• private equity, through euraleo, for large italian operations and directly for smaller operations;
• weatlh management (private banking and institutional banking).

The growth prospects in these activities are sustained by the strengthening of the commercial team in private banking, potential alliances and acquisitions in institutional banking. The bank counts on its managerial team to develop its mergers and acquisitions consulting activities. It also contributes its expertise to Euraleo, joint-venture created with Eurazeo.

	2007 performance

The Group’s 2007 revenues totaled 238 million euros in 2007 versus 112 million euros in 2006, of which 76% were commissions against 86% in 2006.

45% of the net banking income was generated outside Italy compared to 20% in 2006. The pro forma earnings before tax came to 120 million against 52 million euros in 2006 and net income stood at 65 million euros against 30 million euros in 2006.

Income statement

	(In million euros) 2006 pro forma 2007 pro forma 2007 actual   Revenues 112 238 185 EBIT 52 120 93 Net income 30 66 55