Russia industrial giant Rosneft pays 500 milion euros for a 50 pct stake in Camfin and takes an indirect 13.1 pct stake in leading tyre manufacturer Pirelli Group‘s capital becoming its first shareholder. At the same time  Italian private equity operator Clessidra sgr leave the scene, while its partners Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo will partially reinvest in the deal. News was announced yesterday out of the blue (download here the English press release) as investment from Clessidra was intended to last 3 or 4 years since last June 2013.
In just 9 months then Clessidra, founded by Claudio Sposito, gained around a 1.7x return on invested capital. The fund actually invested around 150 million euros in equity at 8 euro per share and will take back 250-280 millions at 12 euro per share, thanks to the fact the Camfin has some leverage.
More in detail, Unicredit,, Intesa Sanpaolo, Clessidra and Nuove Partecipazioni (holding owned by Marco Tronchetti Provera) reached an outline agreement with Rosneft for an oprration which entails, on the one hand, the exit of Unicredit, Intesa Sanpaolo and Clessidra from the existing partnership in Lauro61/Camfin and the simultaneous partial reinvestment by Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo in a new partnership, through the constitution of a dedicated vehicle in which Rosneft would have 50% and the remaining 50% will be held by a newco composed of Nuove Partecipazioni with 80% and Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo with 10% each. This new partnership will hold the 26.2 pct stake in Pirelli today in the possession of Lauro61/Camfin.
The agreement’s objective is to develop Pirelli’s activities and business, also strengthening its commercial network in Russia thanks to Rosneft’s widespread presence across the territory. Rosneft, the world’s most important public company in the oil and gas sector, has since the end of 2012 established a number of commercial agreements with Pirelli, as well as in the area of Research and Development, in particular with regard to materials for the production of tyres and synthetic rubber.
