The acquisition, now authorised by the Bank of Italy and the Italian government’s foreign direct investment (FDI) review board, has given IQ-EQ its first presence in Italy. At the same time, it has bolstered IQ-EQ’s global capital markets and structured finance service proposition.

With more than 200 employees across its offices in Milan and Rome, Zenith is a major player in the Italian market for innovative, sophisticated structures catering to international investors. It delivers a suite of securitisation services, including SPV and corporate servicing, portfolio servicing (master servicer, primary and special servicer, back-up servicer, calculation agent), regulatory services, and structuring. The team, which has expertise in real estate securitisation, offers proprietary technology built specifically to support the securitisation and master servicing market.

IQ-EQ now has more than 6,500 employees across 25 jurisdictions. The acquisition comes hot on the heels of the group’s recent rebrand of its AMAL business to IQ-EQ in Australia and New Zealand – expanding the goup’s global presence in the service provider in the securitisation space.

“Completing our acquisition of Zenith Global is a major milestone for IQ-EQ and for our EMEA business,” John Legrand, IQ-EQ’s deputy group CEO and regional CEO for EMEA, said. “It gives us a strong foothold in Italy – an increasingly important market that’s seeing a notable uplift in investment activity – and fills a strategic gap in our continental European footprint as more of our clients are asking for Italian capabilities.”