Paneuropean private equity firm Apax Partners is starting a dual track process for divesting from Italian auto-parts distributor Rhiag, Reuters writes.
Apax has acqually hired JP Morgan and Ubs to explore a stock market listing or sale of the group where the fund invested in October 2013. So time for divestment seems to be quite early now but Apax hopes to take advantage of the high valuations that now benefit the auto-parts sector in Europe which are 9-10x ebitda. Rhiag might be valuated as much as one billion euros.
Rhiag’s business is actually growing well and last october the group bought Era spa, a leading Italian distributor of electrical and electronic parts for automotive sector (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Rhiag in FY 2014 (see here the FY 2014 statement presentation) reached consolidated revenues of 781.7 million euros (up from 752.8 millions in 2013), an ebitda of 88.7 millions (from 82.6 millions) and a 5.1 millions net loss (in line with 2013). Rhiag issued 465 million euros of bonds in two different issues listed on Borsa italiana’s ‘ExtraMot Pro: a 265 million euros bond maturing in November 2020and paying a fixed 7.65% coupon and a 200 million euros floater issue maturing in December 2019.
