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Ask Carlo™ | Private Equity, Simplified

Ask Carlo™ | Private Equity, Simplified

By: Carlo Schneider
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 How do investors turn millions into billions? Every Tuesday, one real deal - the strategies, the industries, the outcomes. From leveraged buyouts to venture capital. Manufacturing to fashion. Infrastructure to classic cars. Thirty years inside European private markets, now shared through storytelling. Economics Management Management & Leadership Personal Finance
Episodes
  • Episode 4: €87M for a 16th-Century Convent – How Private Equity Turned Sacred Space into Milan’s Most Exclusive Address

    Episode 4: €87M for a 16th-Century Convent – How Private Equity Turned Sacred Space into Milan’s Most Exclusive Address
    Feb 24 2026
    Milan, 2017. A Renaissance convent sits abandoned in the Quadrilatero della Moda – five minutes from Via Montenapoleone. Frescoes deteriorating. Gardens overgrown. Most developers walk away: too complex, too expensive, too many heritage restrictions. A Luxembourg-based private equity fund sees something different. They invest €87 million. Five years later, 22 ultra-luxury apartments sell for €183 million. Here’s how. You’ll discover: Why heritage properties others avoid can generate 16% annual returns - The four-phase execution strategy: approvals, structural restoration, hidden infrastructure, private sales - How scarcity and location command pricing power in Europe’s most protected markets - Why €15,000–18,000 per square metre was a bargain for buyers seeking irreplaceable heritage - The real estate PE strategy spectrum: core, core plus, value-add, opportunistic - Cap rate explained – the single metric that signals market sentiment - Direct property vs PE fund: scale, expertise, and the liquidity trade-off This is Ask Carlo™ | Private Equity, Simplified. Real deals. Real strategies. Real billions. No jargon, just compelling stories from 30 years inside European private markets. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Cold Open: The Abandoned Convent 1:30 - Introduction & Disclaimer 2:45 - The Setup: Milan’s Transformation & the Heritage Opportunity 4:30 - Meridian Capital: The Fund That Specialises in Complexity 6:00 - Phase 1: Acquisition & Approvals (Soprintendenza, UNESCO) 7:00 - Phase 2: Structural Restoration (Frescoes, Terracotta, Timber) 8:30 - Phase 3: Hidden Modern Infrastructure 9:30 - Phase 4: Private Sales via Christie’s & Family Offices 11:00 - The Outcome: €183M Revenue, 2.1x Returns 13:45 - Jargon Buster: What Is Cap Rate? 15:00 - Ask Carlo: Direct Property vs PE Fund 16:15 - The Numbers: IRR vs MOIC Explained 17:30 - Closing & Next Episode Preview ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes every Tuesday. 📬 CONNECT: Instagram: @travel.renaissance.man 💬 SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ NEXT EPISODE: In two weeks – growth equity. How DST Global invested €234 million in Revolut at a €2 billion valuation in 2018 and watched it grow to €29 billion. The strategy, the scaling, the returns. But first, next week: our first Ask Carlo Interview. A family office executive, former fund manager, and entrepreneur shares their personal story in and around private equity. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT ASK CARLO™: I have spent 30+ years co-managing billions across European private markets – buyouts, venture capital, growth equity, real estate, infrastructure. Every Tuesday, I share one real deal to help you understand how sophisticated capital actually works. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, or any other type of professional advice. Always consult qualified professionals before making investment decisions. Educational only. Not investment advice. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #PrivateEquity #RealEstate #LuxuryProperty #Milan #HeritageRestoration #PropertyInvestment #Finance #AskCarlo #InvestmentStrategy #EuropeanPerspective #REPE #ValueAdd © 2026 Carlo
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    19 mins
  • Episode #3: From $2.6B Venture Bet to $60B Streaming Empire: The Spotify Story

    Episode #3: From $2.6B Venture Bet to $60B Streaming Empire: The Spotify Story
    Feb 17 2026
    Stockholm, 2006. Music piracy was killing the industry. Two Swedish entrepreneurs pitched investors an impossible idea: charge for streaming when piracy was free. Investors said yes – and poured $2.6 billion into it over 12 years. Here's why. This is the Spotify story – from a radical bet against piracy to a $60 billion music streaming empire that saved the recording industry.
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    18 mins
  • Episode #2: The power - and controversy - of leveraged buyouts.

    Episode #2: The power - and controversy - of leveraged buyouts.
    Feb 10 2026
    In 2006, a London private equity firm walked into Bernie Ecclestone's office and said, "We'll buy Formula 1 for $2 billion." The twist? They only had $500 million in cash. The rest - $1.5 billion - they borrowed. Eleven years later: 8x returns. This is the Formula 1 story - how borrowed money amplifies returns in private equity, and why sports media became the perfect asset for leveraged buyouts.
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    19 mins
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