Opengate Capital, a global private equity firm, announced a few days ago that it has completed the acquisition of Alfatherm spa, an Italian company which is the fourth largest European PVC film manufacturer, focused on the production and sale of rigid, semi-rigid and flexible PVC films that are used for various applications (see here the press release).
The seller is Emerald fund managed by Italy’s private equity firm PM & Partners. Emerland fund bought Alfatherm back in 2004 from Argan Capital fund (born from a spin off of Bank of America‘s private equity activities).
Headquartered in Venegono Superiore (Varese), Alfatherm was founded 50 years ago and now operates 3 production plants in the Lombardy region, counts 400 employees and produces more than 400 thousand tons of pvc film per year, for about 100 million euros of revenues.
Emerald bought Alfatherm on an enterprise value basis of 110 million euros or 1x year 2004 expected revenues. Argan Capital exited then its investment with 2.5x the capital it had invested in October 2002, when Alfatherm had revenues of about 100 million euros. Argan Capital had in turn bought the company from the founding family Carlini (see here MF Milano Finanza).
Acquisition by Emerald fund had been financed party by senior loans provided by Bnl and Ing banks and party by mezzanine financing provided by Italy’s mezzanine fund Presidio and UK’s mezzanine specialist Indigo Capital.
OpenGate Capital has previously invested in the European pvc chemical space through its pre-fund acquisitions including Kem One sas, Kem One Innovative Vinyls, Benvic and Profialis. In March of this year, OpenGate announced that through its private equity fund it acquired Energi Fenestration Solutions, a North American manufacturer of rigid pvc window profiles and patio doors.
