European Way to Sovereign Funds: A Comparison among CDP, KfW, and CDC

Abstract

Italian Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (hereinafter CDP), German Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (hereinafter KfW), and French Caisse des Dépots et Consignations (hereinafter CDC) are typical examples of financial institutions with a mixed public-private investments’ structure concerned primarily with providing a link between the government and the market with an emphasis on long-term projects of public interest. Their main characteristics are:

• the control is always public, even if more consistent with a private logic, both with reference to the governance both to the performance goals to be achieved;

• financial resources invested, even collected as debt, can be both public and private;

• the investments, equity or debt, are devoted to private and public organization.

This report has been prepared by Professors Guido Corbetta and Gimede Gigante of Bocconi University within the initiative of the Università Bocconi Monitor on Public Private Partnership (MP3). MP3 is an initiative developed in joint by Centre for Applied Research in Finance (CAREFIN) and Center for Research in Innovation, Organization and Strategy (CRIOS) thanks to the support of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, the Boston Consulting Group, EY.