Italy’s mid market private equity firm Quadrivio Capital sgr sold its 52% stake in the leading specialty vegetable and legume seed producer Suba Seeds spa to Paine&Partners, a  US private equity investment firm focused on investing in food and agribusiness  (download here the press release).
Paine&Partners also bought the rest of Suba Seeds capital from the other shareholders who were founder and chairman Augusto Suzzi (15.36%), ceo Giuseppe Tumedei (11%) and other managers. The entire capital of Suba Seedshas been valued about 80 million euros.
Quadrivio sgr had invested in Suba Seeds in 2012 through its Quadrivio Q2 Fund and backed Suba Seeds in the acquisition of the US company Condor Seed Production in January 2014 (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Quadrivio was supported by Pedersoli e Associati law firm for this deal, while sono stati assistiti dalminority stakeholders in Suba Seeds were advised by Celli Fanti law firm and financia advisor Ruffilli Servizi Finanziari.
Founded in 1974 and headquartered in Lonigiano (Forlì-Cesena), Suba Seeds double its revenues today from 2012 and became a global leader in the production of high quality seeds.
Quadrivio sgr’s chairman Alessandro Binello said in a press release that Suba Seeds’ sale is the fifth divestment for Q2 fund in 18 months and “allows the fund to distribute to investors all the capital invested till now with an Irr over 30% n realized exits. We are ready now to make the tenth and lst investment of the fund and go on with the first closing of our third fund focused on italian SMEs”. The latter targeting 300 million euros.
Quadrivio sgr is now in fundraising for other three funds: one focused on SMEs’ private debt  (with a 300 million euros target), one focused on renewable energies (300 million euros) and a venture capital fund (TTVenture Due, 100 million euros) (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
