Italian mission-critical control systems producer Vitrociset raised too much poor bids in an auction managed by financial advisor Banca Imi for a significant stake in its shareholders capital, MF-Milano Finanza wrote last September 17.
The company is owned by the Crociani family through the holding Ciset (98.54%) with the remaining 1.46% stake owned by Selex Ex, controlled by governemnt owned Finmeccanica.
Chairman Edoarda Crociani is looking for a partner who can support the international growth of the business. In the last few months she obtain some bids from both industrial players (such as  British Telecom Global Service and Eads) and financial sponsors (such as Investindustrial and Clessidra) but they are said to be considered too low.
The Cruciani family would expect bids around 200 million euros for the stake while bids have been around 100-120 millions. In order to come out of the shallows Banca Imi is now studying a spin off of the company’s real estate which is owned by Ciset Immobiliare.
Vitrociset, led since 2012 by former managing director of  Finmeccanica, Giorgio Zappa. works for the areospace and defence sectors as wall as for the Too transport and logistics secotrs and had an orders backlog of 295.9 million euros in 2013 (from 275 millions in 2012), consolidated revenues of 192.8 millions (from 180) and an ebitda of 28.1 miillions (from 26.8) with a net financial debt of 22.5 millionsi (from 27.3) (download here the 2013 financial statements).
