Berkeley Research Group launches in Italy with Rome and Milan offices

Berkeley Research Group has launched its presence in Italy, expanding its footprint in the European market to four countries.

Through the hire of a senior team in Italy, Berkeley Research Group has launched hubs in Rome and Milan, which will spearhead the firm’s services in Southern Europe, and operate alongside its other offices in London, Brussels and Paris.

The new team crosses from rival The Brattle Group and is specialised in economics, competition, and antitrust matters in regulated industries, bringing decades of experience in the field. The cohort is led by Managing Directors Francesco Lo Passo and Marcella Fantini, and Associate Director Alessandro Greco.

Francesco Lo Passo has more than 20 years of experience as a consultant specialising in regulation, privatisation and restructuring with a focus on network industries, drawing on his time as a member of Italy’s Treasury Council of Experts, at the OECD Advisory Group on Privatization and as senior advisor on energy to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Joining Berkeley Research Group allows me to offer my clients access to one of the biggest teams of competition economists in Europe, along with a global network of industry and arbitration experts. I have previously collaborated with many of my new colleagues and am very excited to launch this new phase of my practice with them,” said Lo Passo.

Marcella Fantini has more than twenty years of experience in the energy sector, particularly in regulatory due diligence in the context of acquisition and financing of regulated gas and electricity assets and in regulation design in the natural gas and electricity industries. She has worked for a wide range of clients, including regulators, regulated companies, investors, and private energy firms.

Fantini stated: “Berkeley Research Group’s entrepreneurial culture is a perfect fit for my practice which is increasingly focused on new, developing infrastructures. These projects, and the regulatory frameworks in which they operate, are taking shape all over the world, so being able to leverage the firm’s global network of experts and offices is hugely exciting.”

Alessandro Greco has extensive experience in the economic regulation of transport and energy infrastructures, cost of capital estimation, due diligences of regulated assets for international infrastructure funds and public-service tenders. He has assisted the main Italian concessionaires of strategic infrastructures (airports, motorways, railways, gas and electricity grids, hydroelectric assets), as well as banks, investment funds and institutional entities.

Kai-Uwe Kühn, a managing director at Berkeley Research Group, said on the arrivals: “We are thrilled to welcome Francesco, Marcella and their team. It is a great pleasure to work with them again on matters from utilities and regulatory issues to state aid and competition cases.”

Globally, Berkeley Research Group has a team of 1,600 professionals. Alongside economics, the consulting firm also advises clients on corporate finance, disputes and investigations, and performance improvement.