Roen Est spa, am Italian solution provider for the design and manufacture of heat exchangers, has been bought by a private equity fund managed by US asset manager DE Shaw Global,  MF Milano Finanza writes today.
DE SHaw is at its first private equity investment in Italy after having invested in the non-performing loans sector instead.
The deal is part of a new debt restructuring agreement signed with senior lending banks (art. 67 of Italy’s Banckruptcy Law) after a first one had been signed back in 2013.
The seller is Synergo sgr, an Italian mid-market private equity firm who bought the competitor Sofipa sgr some years ago and and tool over the management of its two private equity funds (Sofipa Equity Fund and Sofipa Equity Fund II) which in turn controlled Roen Est through  Coils Investimenti srl.
The two Sopfipa funds had invested for the first time in Roen in August 2007 buying out a 60% of the company and raised their stake by another 37% in July 2009. That stake was valued then 8.3 million euros, after Roen had closed FY 2008 with 40.4 millions in revenues (see here the press release).
Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Ronchi dei Legionari (Trieste), Roen is led by ceo Giovanni Bordin since 2012 and is a benchmark in terms of its technology and solutions for airconditioning, cooling, heating and cogeneration. The company is expected to close FT 2015 with 34 million euros in revenues (of which 75% from exports in 48 countries) and 4 millions in ebitda, in line with 2014. The company was however burdened by a 38 million euros of net financial debt which it was not able to carry anymore so it was valued a negative equity for about 16 millions euro.
DE Shaw bought senior loans from Roen’s lending banks (GE Interbanca, Ikb and Bnp Paribas) with a significative discount, covered Roen’s losses, converted part of the senior loans into a shareholders’ subordinated loan (8 million euros) and subscribed a 1,5 million euros capital increase committing also to other capital increases when neeeded to support the company relaunch.
After the deal Roen starts over with 13 million euros in net assets, no medium term senior debt and 4 million euros in short term credit lines. The company has been supported by Vitale&Co spa as financial advisor and by Studio Avv. Giuseppe Iannaccone e Associati, as for the legal issues, while Palladio Corporate Finance and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe law firm advised DE Shaw.
