(Bloomberg) -- PartnerRe exitedjunk bonds and shifted funds into property as the reinsurerreshaped a $16 billion investment portfolio after being acquired byJohn Elkann’s Exor SpA.

Exor’s approach is to focus on holdings that “we know andunderstand very well,” PartnerRe Chief Financial Officer Mario Bonaccorso,previously a managing director at Exor, said Wednesday at an annualgathering held by the Italian firm. “That’s the philosophy we haveapplied to PartnerRe.”

Exor, controlled by Elkann’s billionaire Agnelli family,paid $6.1 billion to acquire PartnerRe thisyear, winning a hostile takeover battle to completethe firm’s largest-ever deal. Elkann said last year that he wouldshun risks related to financial investments at Bermuda-basedPartnerRe and seek instead to boost returns through superiorinsurance underwriting.

Exor in March sold its stake in Almacantar, a U.K. propertyinvestment group, to PartnerRe for 485 million euros ($541 million)and used the funds to reduce its debt. The reinsurer exited about$179 million of emerging-market fixed-income holdings in additionto $354 million of high-yield bonds since Sept. 30, according to apresentation on the firm’s website.

“Real estate is definitely an asset class which makes sense forPartnerRe to have,” Elkann said on the call. The reinsurer will“will increase its presence” in that arena, he said.

Exor also controls Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Ferrari NV,and raised its stake in the Economist magazine last year.

Related: Buffett says bonds unattractive, if not terrible,for reinsurers

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