Chinese Grandland Holdings, parent of Grandland Group, one of the leading company specializing in design and construction of architectural decoration in China, will buy Permasteelisa, an Italian group which is a worldwide leading contractor in engineering, project management, manufacturing and installation of architectural envelopes and interior systems. The Chinese group will pay 467 million euros for the deal (see here the press release).
Grandland has won an auction that has seen bids coming from many international private equity funds such as Alpha, Permira, Cinven, Pai and Carlyle ( see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Permasteelisa will be managed as a separate business entity and its independence will be guaranteed by the new shareholder. Permasteelisa’s headquarters will continue to be based in Vittorio Veneto, Italy, where they have been since the incorporation of the company, while the actual ceoRiccardo Mollo and the other top managers will go on in managing the company.
Founded in 1973 and with a annual turnover of approximately 1.4 billion euros, Permasteelisa is known for its iconic, special features buildings, such as the Shard in London, the Apple Park, Apple’s new HQs in Cupertino, the Sydney Opera House and the International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong. Permasteelisa works worldwide to turn the visions of the best architects into reality, and has a history full of symbolic buildings that have changed the skylines around the world.
The seller is Japanese Lixil Group Corporation, controlled by JS Group, which had bought Permasteelisa out in August 2011 from funds managed by Alpha Private Equity (40.8%) and Investindustrial (47.5%) and from Italian entrepreneur Lucio Mafessanti (11.7%).
Back in 2011 Lixil had paid 573 million euros for Permasteelisa (see here the press release) after the company had posted 1.1 billion euros in consolidated revenues in 2010 with an 80 million euros ebitda. Sellers cashed in a total of 620 million euros as prior to the sale had obtained an extra dividend of about 50 million euros.
Investindustrial and Alpha Private Equity had bought control in Permasteelisa in 2009 paying 350 million euros to prior shareholders Amber fund and Italian entrepreneur Luigi Cimolai and delisting the company from the Italian Stock Exchange after having launched a tender offer.
