iM Global Partner (iMGP) and DECALIA SA have listed the iMGP Italian Opportunities R EUR UCITS ETF (ticker: ITAL) on Euronext Milan, the first actively managed Italian-equity UCITS ETF on the exchange, and iMGP’s first listing in Italy.
The firm writes that Italian ETF investors are no longer limited to passive strategies: they can now access an active solution of 50 to 70 all-cap Italian stocks, supported by a 30-year track record with a net annualised return of c.9 per cent since inception (16/09/1996).
Sub-manager DECALIA are the specialists behind one of the longest-running active Italian-equity strategies in the market, the firm says. Lead portfolio manager Alfredo Piacentini has run the strategy since 1985 and the fund since its launch in 1996 and is supported by co-manager Sandro Occhilupo.
“What sets the strategy apart is active, high-conviction selection. Where a passive tracker simply mirrors an index dominated by a few of the largest names, DECALIA chooses stocks on their fundamentals and takes deliberate, meaningful positions across the full Italian market. The ETF share class extends access to the same strategy and investment process within a daily-tradable, transparent wrapper and eligible for regular savings plans (PAC) for the first time.”
Alfredo Piacentini, Lead Portfolio Manager & Managing Partner, DECALIA, says: “Italy is far more than luxury goods and tourism. It is a dynamic economy built on innovation, entrepreneurship and world-class companies operating across multiple sectors. Our objective has always been simple: identify attractive businesses before the market fully recognises their value. The ETF share class enables a wider audience of investors to access the same investment process that has guided the fund since 1996 and the strategy since 1985.”
Francesca Campanelli, Director, Distribution Head of Italy & Ticino, iM Global Partner, says: “For nearly 30 years this has been one of the most respected active Italian-equity strategies, but mostly inside private-bank and institutional portfolios, out of reach of everyone else. Listing it on Euronext Milan changes that. A private saver, a wealth adviser, a family office, any of them can now hold DECALIA’s expertise in a single line they can trade every day, on Italy’s own exchange. That is exactly what our active ETF platform exists to do: take genuine, high-conviction active management and open it to the widest possible audience.”
The strategy
ITAL invests across the full Italian market-cap spectrum through an all-cap, flexible approach built on:
Top-down macro and bottom-up stock selection: global and local macroeconomic analysis combined with fundamental, company-by-company research.
Opportunistic small- and mid-cap exposure: going beyond the large-cap names that dominate Italian indices.
A focus on management quality and corporate governance: with a medium- to long-term investment horizon.
A concentrated, high-conviction book: typically 50–70 holdings, with discretionary positioning unconstrained by the index.
