Tamburi Investments Partners spa (TIP), an Italian independent investment-merchant bank will be a new significat shareholder of Azimut Benetti Group spa, the Italian group which is the worldwide largest network in yachts and megayachts industry.
The deal has been announced last Friday August 28th (download here the press release) and had been anticipated by MF Milano Finanza one week ago.
Azimut Benetti is controlled now by the Vitelli family with a 93% stake (the reamining 6.2% being owned by investment company Mittel spa and 0.8% by the management).
The deal is structured into two steps. In a first step Azimut Benetti spa and TIP will acquire in equal proportion the stake of Azimut Benetti held by Mittel (for a total consideration of 20 million euros). While a separate agreement provides that TIP will fully underwrite, by today August 31st a capital increase already been approved by the company shareholders meeting, for more than 30 million euros in Azimut Benetti.
As a result of the above TIP will own about 12% of Azimut Benetti on a fully diluted basis, therefore also as a consequence of the previously mentioned capital increase and net of treasury shares effect, and TIP’s chairman, Giovanni Tamburi, will be appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of the company.
The capital increase, in a group with basically no financial debt,in addition to the significant credit lines available has the goal to further strengthen the financial capabilities of Azimut Benetti from a strategic perspective, and to allow the company to make further investments, develop new products and play an active role in future transactions and alliances that will occur in the high-end segment of the boating industry.
Azimut Benetti Group, which also includes Fraser Yacht, one of the most important yacht broker worldwide, operates with 6 production facilities, 11 shipyards, a distribution network of 138 dealers in more than 70 countries, employing about 2,179 people and generating in FY 2014-2015 (FY closes on August 31st) a value of production in excess of 650 million euro showing a growth higher than 10% compared to the previous year.
Azimut Benetti’s chairman paolo Vitelli told MF Milano Finanza last Saturday Aug. 29th that “budget for 2014-2017 includes investments for about 105 million euros, 20 millions of which will be used to build a new construction plant dedicated to giga-yachts (more than 70 meters long)”. As far as new acquisitions are concernedi, “we will look at opportunities on markets where we are active already and only with the aim of enlarging the range of our supply”, Vitelli said.
The real news is insted that the group has entered the new business of acquiring and managing touristic ports. “We just won a contest for acuiring a port in Malta and we are waiting for the result of the contest for the touristic port in Livorno. An interesting opportunity is to be the Fiumicino’s port (close to Rome) when a contest will start. Finally we are working on a deal in New York City. We had met Governor Andrew Cuomo already and we are ready to invest 20 million euros”, Vitelli said.
