Fabrizio Cerina

Business career

Cerina has over 20 years' experience in investing capital and raising funds on behalf of institutional clients and large family offices. During his career he has been principal investor as well as advised upon over 200 transactions, mainly in the media & telecoms, real estate, and industrial sectors.

Cerina began his career by acquiring a 34% stake in Banque de Participations et de Placements, Geneva, which he subsequently sold to Lebanese buyer Al-Mashreg Bank, one of the largest banks in the Middle East at the time.

In 1982, he acquired Attel Bank, in which he invested CHF1.5 million (US$1.53 million), eventually listing the holding company in 1987 on the Luxembourg Exchange. The market cap grew to approximately CHF130 million (US$133 million).

Cerina was dubbed "a banker and a gentleman" by Swiss and international press in the nineties when, as the controlling shareholder of Attel Bank, he voluntarily refunded clients out of his own pocket after a rogue trader caused losses amounting to CHF45 million (US$46 million). The trader stole money from clients and dealt in unauthorized junk bonds and NASDAQ securities' trades.

Following a spin-off of the assets of Attel, Cerina rebuilt the business through Crédit des Alpes, now a successful investment bank advising on large international transactions. The bank put together the US$4.2 billion acquisition by Vivendi of Brazil telecoms company Global Village Telecom (GVT) in 2009 — then the largest telecoms deal in the world. Telecoms remains a key sector of importance for Cerina.

In real estate, Crédit des Alpes originated and acted as the sole investment bank on the sale of Cipriani-Saxony Ocean Resort, Miami, to a U.S. corporate investor. The sale in 2007, remains to date, one of the largest ever property transactions in Miami.

The bank is also active in the private equity domain. Its holding company, Crédit des Alpes Holdings SA, acquired Swiss Data Deposit, a producer of digital technology in 2006. In 1999, it bought Redaelli Tecna S.p.A., one of the world’s largest producers of steel wires, together with Kohlberg & Co of New York, and subsequently sold it in 2008, after a turn around, to Russia’s Severstal Metiz.

In January 2014, Crédit des Alpes announced that it had expanded its client offering in the United States after taking over three Miami-based real estate operators and property owners. The U.S. subsidiary, Crédit des Alpes Partners, focuses on sourcing and developing real estate investment opportunities in America and internationally, whilst its affiliated company, Real Value Properties, serves as realtor and property manager. The deal expands upon an earlier joint venture between Crédit des Alpes Group of Switzerland and Parinvest Asset Management in 2012 and is aimed at servicing a growing Latin American client base.

Early life and education

Cerina was born in Parma. His father was an entrepreneur and his mother a housewife. Cerina went to school in Milan and Hertfordshire. As a young man he excelled in light athletics, particularly pole vaulting.　

Cerina attended the University of Milan to read Economics, followed by Graduate School of Economics at Stanford University and Colombia Graduate School of Business in New York City.

Cerina also served his compulsory military service as a Lieutenant in the Parachute Battalion of Carabinieri, the Italian civil and military police.