The Benetton family has merged its private capital arm 21 Invest with Milan-based Tages to create 21 Next, a new investment platform that will be controlled by the family holding company Edizione and will manage €3bn of assets, according to a report by the Financial Times.

The move marks a major expansion of the family’s private markets strategy. Alessandro Benetton, who will chair 21 Next, said the aim is to triple assets under management to €10bn within five years. Tages co-founder Panfilo Tarantelli will lead the firm as chief executive.

Edizione will commit €500m of seed capital to the new platform. Benetton said private capital is undergoing a structural transition, noting that the days of buyout firms relying on leverage to deliver returns are over. He said that delivering value now requires deeper operational expertise, an area in which Edizione has long experience.

The merger comes as private capital firms across Europe seek scale and consolidation opportunities. Benetton said 21 Next plans to expand both organically and through further acquisitions as technology disruption and AI reshape value creation in the industry.

The Benetton family has reoriented its 60-year-old business away from retail and towards infrastructure over the past two decades. Its assets include motorways in Latin America, the US, and India, along with airports such as Rome Fiumicino and Nice Côte d’Azur. After the 2018 Genoa bridge collapse, the family exited Italy’s motorway business and restructured its infrastructure arm, now named Mundys.

Tages, founded in 2011, has developed a strong position in renewable energy, managing €1.4bn in infrastructure and energy-transition assets, and has recently expanded into credit.

Benetton said the transformation of Edizione reflects a broader ambition: “We’ve changed 80 per cent of the management and the investment perimeter, but also because we are proposing something that is valuable and durable.”

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