RiRi, a leading manufacturer of zippers and buttons primarily to the high-end luxury fashion and accessories industry, has been acquired by Dutch private equity operator Gilde Buyout through its Swiss controlled subsidiary Runway acquisition company II Ag. The announcement has been made last week (download here Gilde’s press release), after more than one month of exclusive talks.
Sellers were Sofipa equity fund (Sef, listed at the Italian Stock Exchange, owner of a 12.02% stake) and Sofipa equity fund II. Both the two funds have been managed once by Sofipa sgr, the asset management company originally owned by Unicredit group and sold some years ago to  Italian mid-market private equity operator Synergo sgr (download here Synergo’s press release).
Legal advisors to Synergo sgr for the deal were Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & partners and  Brunoni Mottis e Associati law firms, while Gilde was supported by Baker&McKenzie law firm.
Riri works with its three brands Riri (metal and plastic molded zippers), Meras (nylon and non-polished metal zippers) and Cobrax (buttons) and has clients such as Gucci, Prada and LVMH’s brands as well as Nike and Rebook.
The group has been built up by Sofipa sgr as a result of three companies acquisitions. Sofipa started in 2006 acquiring Padua-based Cobrax, than bought the Brescia-based Meras in 2007 and finally bought the Swiss (Canton Ticino) company RiRi in 2008. Â Led by ceo Renato Ursoni, who will be a minority shareholder of the group, the company owns now four producing plants and in 2013 reached revenues of 89.9 million swiss francs (or 74.5 million euros) from 83.4 millions in 2012 with 43.7 millions francs of ebitda (or 36.2 million euros) from 42.3 millions in 2012 and a net financial debt of 16.3 million francs (or 13.5 million euros) from 12.5 millions.
History of RiRi group is summarized in the financial statements for H1 2014 of Sofipa equity fund  (download here the financial statements).
