Milan, October 5, 2020 – Saturday October 10, at the offices in Via Valtellina, Milan, is the date set for the Recruiting Day organized by the Prelios Group, the leader in alternative asset management, distressed loan management and specialized real estate services.
The event is a unique opportunity for 30 candidates – selected from more than 550 CVs – to test their skills in a corporate workplace simulation with a real case, a practical example of the sort of work they could soon be undertaking.
“Corporate crisis management covers an extremely broad range of competences,” observes Prelios UTP Managing Director Stefano Focaccia. “It requires economic, financial, legal and industrial know-how, as well as a natural ability to work in conditions of stress caused by the particular situation of the company, its shareholders and management. The young professionals who will be selected on October 10 will be in the field dealing with these issues from the start, supported by a management team from the top advisories specialized in financial and industrial turnarounds, the world of investors in “special situations” and the restructuring and distressed M&A units of leading Italian and European banks.”
“During the Covid-19 emergency, the Prelios Group was faced with the challenge of building a new industrialized management machine for UTPs. We succeeded by focusing on people, processes and systems. Despite the very difficult situation, we have recruited and brought 67 people on board in the last six months,” says Group COO Fabio Panzeri. “They have joined us with an average age of 33, bringing new energy and skills. The search for young talents continues and October 10 is also of symbolic importance: it is the first time this year that we have recruited on a face-to-face basis, after a long period when all recruiting was done remotely.”
The full-immersion field recruiting day has been organized by Prelios to hire new talents with up to three years’ previous experience, and a degree preferably in Engineering Management or Economics, to work in the business unit recently set up to manage UTPs. This is a new sector where the Prelios Group is a first mover and a leading Italian player, with UTP and NPL assets under management currently amounting to more than 35 billion euro.
Contrary to the current “brain drain” trend, Prelios places great importance on young, highly qualified professionals, who, having begun their career with well-known corporations, banks and consultancies outside Italy, are attracted by a dynamic and stimulating Group reporting continuous growth.
The Recruiting Day continues the growth trend at the Group, which has hired almost 250 professionals since the beginning of 2019, of whom 115 in the first half, despite the lockdown. Selection was conducted on collaborative platforms and in some cases through “asynchronous” video interviews; the subsequent onboarding of the new employees was also reviewed to ensure they would be fully operational and appropriately mentored from the start.
Prelios Group Human Resources & Organization Director Andrea Fabbri says: “For a Group so strongly based on people, it is extremely satisfying to see the success of our call for candidacies for this selection campaign. Despite the situation created by Covid-19, we have continued to develop the UTP team and, more generally, the Prelios Group talents pool. The expansion on UTPs began with the previous Recruiting Day in October 2019, when we selected some of the talents who today are making a decisive contribution to the business unit's growth. For younger colleagues, Prelios is a real opportunity for continuous learning in a workplace that cares greatly about the quality of life in the company.”
The Prelios Group also wants to find new talents through word-of-mouth among its employees: about 10-15% of its new entries over the last year were recruited through the “Hire a Friend” initiative designed to encourage people already in the company to help develop its teams by leveraging their network of professional relations.