Italy’s Borromeo Family Lists Islands to Rival Lake Como
(Bloomberg) — Italy’s Borromeo family is listing a company managing real estate sites including a group of islands on Lake Maggiore, aiming to turn the area into a tourism and business hub to rival nearby Lake Como.
They plan to use proceeds from the listing of Kaleon SpA — originally founded in 1983 to manage the family estates at the lake in northern Italy — to develop the area and transform their business into a platform to oversee other historic and artistic sites in Italy and elsewhere.
“Lake Maggiore is little known abroad,” said Giberto Borromeo, Kaleon’s vice chairman and head of business development. “We haven’t had George Clooney buying a villa, or Villa d’Este, as at Lake Como.” But Borromeo insists the location is just as promising. “What is missing is a luxury hospitality hub,” he said.
Kaleon will debut trading Monday, Dec. 1, on the Paris and Milan exchanges. Its shares priced on Nov. 27 at €4, giving the company a market capitalization of €56.5 million ($66 million). Private equity firm Investindustrial, led by Andrea Bonomi, will act as anchor investor and retain a minority stake in the company, according to terms seen by Bloomberg.
Borromeo said Kaleon is in discussions with owners of other historic sites in the Veneto region and in Switzerland, without providing more details.
“We seek owners of heritage assets to offer our services, and we want to be able to do so through a listed company whose ownership and financials are public, so our solidity is proven,” Borromeo said. Families that own castles, villas or parks will have the option of becoming shareholders of Kaleon, he added.
Properties are managed through long-term lease agreements with the sites’ owners, Kaleon said in a document. The aim is to focus on maintenance, preservation and the cultural experience of visitors without a direct real estate ownership.
The Borromeos, among Italy’s oldest aristocratic families, started to acquire land in the Lake Maggiore area around six hundred years ago. Ancestors include Charles Borromeo, who served as Archibishop of Milan in the sixteenth century and was made a saint. Vitaliano VI Borromeo is considered the mastermind behind the palace and the Baroque style garden of Isola Bella, one of the islands in the archipelago.
Lavinia Borromeo, a descendant of the family, is married to Stellantis NV Chairman John Elkann. Her sister, Beatrice Borromeo, married Pierre Casiraghi, grandson of Grace Kelly, on Isolino di San Giovanni, one of the family’s islands.
Cardinal Federico Borromeo, a cousin of St. Charles Borromeo, is a character in one of Italy’s most celebrated historic classic novels, ‘The Betrothed,’ written in the 19th century by Alessandro Manzoni. He is celebrated in the book for his acts of charity and heroism, particularly during Milan’s plague in around 1630.
Last summer, the Borromeos restored the Cannero Castles on Lake Maggiore, close to the border with Switzerland, after the ruins had been left idle for 500 years.
–With assistance from Victoria Cagol.
(Updates with details in seventh paragraph.)
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
