The non-core investments area is the smallest business within the CIR group.  Over the past few years, CIR has set up several initiatives.

CIR Ventures

CIR Ventures is the venture capital fund of the group. At the end of 2010 it had investments in six companies, of which five are in the United States and one in Israel. These companies all operate in the sector of information and communications technology. The total fair value of these investments as of December 31, 2010 was 15 million dollars.

Private equity funds

The CIR group holds a diversified portfolio of funds and minority private equity holdings, the fair value of which determined on the basis of the NAV provided by the various funds was approximately 75 million euros at December 31 2010.

Hedge funds

Medinvest  has been a fund of hedge funds set up in 1994 to invest certain proportion of CIR group’s excess liquidity with the aim of obtaining high returns, while reducing volatility and diversifying risk.  During 2008 CIR established a plan of divestment from Medinvest to meet the objective of rebalancing the portfolio in order to optimize the financial structure of the group. In November 2009, the shares of hedge funds held by Medinvest were concentrated in the company CIR International, as part of a process of simplifying international activities at holding level. The performance of these investmentes since inception (April 1994) up to and including 2010 gave a weighted average return of the portfolio in dollar terms of 7.6%. In 2010 performance was a positive 4.7%. As at 31 December 2010 the total value of shares held in hedge funds was € 84 million.

Swiss Education Group

During the third quarter 2011, the CIR group acquired and interest of approximately 20% in the company SEG (Swiss Education Group), one of the world leaders in hospitality management training (hotels, restaurants, etc.) for an amount of about 28 million euro. Founded in 1982, the SEG group has five hospitality management schools and a language school in Switzerland with a total of around 4,600 students from more than 70 countries worldwide. The annual turnover of the SEG group is around 100 million euro.

Food Concepts Holding 

Food Concepts Holding is the new start-up of the CIR Group operating in the restaurant sector. The company aims to create a new kind of restaurant inspired by Italian and Mediterranean cuisine in the fast casual segment. The first Food Concepts restaurant (LaBaracca) started operating in June 2010 in Munich (Germany). The company is chaired by Claudio Stabon.