Investment Philosophy

Decalia’s conviction is that the main Italian equity indices are too concentrated in a handful of the largest names. A passive tracker simply mirrors that concentration; this strategy does not. Decalia selects stocks on their fundamentals and takes deliberate, meaningful positions, significantly over- or under-weight relative to the broad market, across the whole of the Italian market, including opportunistic exposure to the small- and mid-cap companies that large-cap indices largely miss. 

The approach is all-cap and style-, sector- and size-agnostic. It combines top-down analysis using global and local macroeconomic forecasts to define the investment scenario and guide sector rotation with bottom-up, fundamental, company-by-company stock selection. Particular attention is paid to the quality of company management and to corporate governance, over a medium- to long-term horizon. 

The result is a concentrated, high-conviction portfolio of typically 50 to 70 holdings, with discretionary positioning unconstrained by any index. The strategy’s scale allows for reactivity and flexibility, and Decalia draws on an extensive network of relationships with company management teams and sell-side analysts built over decades. 

Positioning is built around a barbell of value plays and special situations,turnarounds, spin-offs and M&A, alongside structural “Made in Italy” themes and family-owned “eccellenze”, the niche leaders that characterise the Italian market.