Monviso spa, an Italian manufacturer of crackers, bread substitutes and sweet and savory biscuits has been acquired by Cerea Partenaire, a French private equity firm with specific focus un agri-food business. Sellers were Italian private equity firm PM&Partners sgr and Monviso’s top managers (see here the press release). Cerea has been said to be in talks with PM & Partners for the deal since last December (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
The deal was made through the investment veichle Altabread srl, controlled by the Cerea Capital II fund and was financed party with mezzanine debt by Céréa Mezzanine and Capzanine funds and party by senior debt issued by a pool of banks led by  Credit Agricole-Cariparma and Bnl Bnp Paribas.
Alessandro Manfredi Cusmano will remain as Monviso’s ceo while Marco Visentin will become cfo. Monviso’s top managment will joint Cerea in Altabread’s capital with a 5% stake.
Monviso has been controlled by PM&Partners with a 95.4% stake since November 2012, when the fund bought the company out from Alto Capital II, a private equity fund managed by Alto Partners sgr. Both private equity and strategic buyers has been contacting PM&Partners since November 2016 and US corn flakes giant Kellogg’s and Spanish food group Grefusa were said to be interested in a deal  (see ahere a previous post by BeBeez), while at the end of December 2016 it was reported an interest from Balconi, the Italian company controlled by Irish Valeo Foods, in turn controlled by Capvest funds (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Founded in 1936, Monviso counts 130 employees and 4 facilities in Northern Italy. The company is composed of two branches, Monviso (biscotto salute, bruschetta line, breadsticks with brand Panmonviso, crackers and recently cookies under its own brand for retailers and in co-packing mainly for gluten-free) and Tonon (sweet and savory biscuits for retail exports, catering and ice cream manufacturers).
Actually Monviso bought Biscotteria Tonon spa in 2015  (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Monviso had sales of approximately 36 million euros in 2017, more than one third of which from exports, in line with FY 2016’s revenues, when the company reported a 7.1 million euro ebitda and a 11.9 million euro net financial debt (see here an analysis by Leanus, after free registration and login).
PM & Partners was supported by financial advisor Vitale & Co sand by Gattai, Minoli, Agostinelli & Partners law firm, while the vendor due diligence was by PwC. Céréa Partenaire has been supported instead by financial advisor Brera Financial Advisory and by Dentons law firm, while Cerea Mezzanine and Capzanine were advised by Gitti and Partners. Financial and accounts due diligences for the acquiror were made by Grant Thorton while the business due diligence was made by Long Term Partners. Legal advisor to the lender banks was Simmons & Simmons. The deal was signed by notary Milano Notai.
