Bids for a minority stake in  Rimorchiatori Riuniti, a leading tugboats operator in the Mediterranean sea, headquartered in Genoa, are expected by the end of October,MF Shipping & Logistica writes today.
Rimorchiatori Riuniti is now owned by the Gavarone and Delle Piane families. Bids for a 30-40% stake of the capital are expected coming from private equity funds managed by F2i sgr, Blackstone, First State Investments and Deutsche Bank.
At the same time of the deal a new sub-holding will be created (Rimorchiatori Mediterranei spa), where will be concentrated the majority stakes in Rimorchiatori Riuniti Porto di Genova, Rimorchiatori Salerno, Rimorchiatori Augusta and Rimorchiatori Malta, and the 50% stake of Gesmar (as the other 50% is owned by the Vitiello family), all companies owning licences to operate in the ports of Genoa,  Salerno, Augusta, Ravenna, Trieste and Ancona.
Rimorchiatori Riuniti, founded in 1922 and now operating with a bout 100 vessels, was expected to list in the mid-term instead of opening its capital to private equity funds. At least that was what Rimorchiatori Riuniti’s ceo Gregorio Gavarone said it would have been when in 2014 announced it was entering the Elite Program, an education program for SMEs managed by the Italian Stock Exchange aiming at structuring themselves for meeting international investors requestes in view of a possibile listing, bond issuing or private equity deal.
Thanks to new shareholders’ capital, Rimorchiatori Riuniti will be able to fund new m&a deals. Th ecompany last acquired Rimorchiatori Augusta from Augustea Holding for 60 million euros (plus other 15 millions to be be paid on specific conditions) in April 2016 (see a previous post by BeBeez) and before that the company had bought the 50% stake in Gesmar from Ravenna-based Setramar.
Rimorchiatori Riuniti reached 114.5 million euros in consolidated revenues in 2016 (from 121.8 millions in 2015), a 55.5 million euros ebitda, a 31.2 millions ebit and a 17.6 million euros net profit (from 25.7 millions in 2015).
The group operates in three different sectors: portual tow, with 93.8 million euros in revenues and 21 millions in net profits last year;  offshore, tow (43.2 millions in revenues and 3.6 millions in net profits) and shipping ( 7.5 millions in revenues and 7.5 millions net loss).
