Italy: Asset management group Anima Holding SpA has acquired the assets of Milan-based short-term rental property management company Halldis SpA through its subsidiary Castello Sgr.
The transaction, worth a reported €2.6 million, was made possible through the creation of instrumental company Vita Srl. Halldis has acquired 21 per cent of Vita, with a ‘put and call’ mechanism due to be exercised after a five-year lock-up period, while asset management company CompassRock Real Estate bought 2.95 per cent of the vehicle as part of the collaboration agreement.
As of 31 December 2023, Halldis was reported to have been managing 534 real estate units across Italian tourist destinations, with revenues of approximately €9 million and approaching profitability after the pandemic.
Halldis previously filed for administration in August 2020 at the Court of Milan, having encountered financial difficulties which worsened during the Covid-19 outbreak. At the time, the company was managing more than 1,800 properties across 20 destinations in Europe on behalf of private and institutional owners, making it one of Italy’s largest short-term rental property management companies [accommodating both leisure and business travellers].
Dating back to 1986, Halldis started life as Windows on Italy, a regional agency for period properties in Tuscany, founded by Leonardo Ferragamo. In 2002, Pietro Martani founded Halldis in Milan, the first entrepreneurial activity in Italy dedicated to the management of apartments for short-term rental, and in 2004, Halldis set up in Paris – its first overseas destination.
In 2017, it underwent a rebranding to Halldis SpA., off the back of a development boom, or ‘Expo effect’, from the Milan World Expo in 2015.
