Platinum Equity bought the majority of the De Wave Group from Xenon Private Equity. De Wave’s top management will reinvest with a minority stake in the capital of the group specializing in the design, production and installation of public areas of ships. The deal is financed by a pool of banks led by MPS Capital Service and composed by Banco BPM, UBI Banca and Banca Ifis.
Platinum was assisted in the transaction by Brera Financial Advisory, partner of Clearwater International, as m&a and debt advisor and by the Latham & Watkins law firm. EY and Deloitte assisted the company respectively for tax and financial due diligence activities. Xenon Private Equity was supported by Fineurop Soditic for the financial aspects and by the Pavia and Ansaldo law firm for the legal aspects.
The auction was opened last Summer and at the beginning of August NB Renaissance and Stirling Square Capital Partners were said to be in pole position (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
De Wave was born at the end of 2014 as a spinoff of the activities of the marine interior design sector of Demonts srl, a group specialized in the construction and maintenance of plants in the oil & gas, industrial and power generation sectors. De Wave is the result of a management buyout funded by Xenon Private Equity, with the management led by the ceo Giovanni Battista Bozzo, who had then invested for a 3% stake.
De Wave is today a group specializing in the design, construction, fitting out and refitting of cabins, toilets, public areas and catering areas for cruise ships, ferries, ships supporting the oil & gas sector, military ships and generally large ships. The group is based in Genoa and has factories, operating units and sales offices in Italy, Poland, the United States and South East Asia. The group closed 2018 with 160 million euros of revenues from only 63 million euros in 2017, thanks to a series of acquisitions.
Infact in March 2017, De Wave acquired the Precetti group, which specializes in the design, production and installation of catering areas and interior refitting of ships. While last March he took over from the Pompili family the Spencer Group, active in the design, production and installation of public areas of large and cruise ships (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
Platinum Equity, founded in 1995 by Tom Gores, is a global investment fund based in Los Angeles with offices in Boston, Greenwich, New York, London and Singapore and with approximately 13 billion dollars in assets under management. Platinum has completed more than 250 operations over the past 25 years.
Platinum Equity will support De Wave in its long-term expansion project both through organic growth and through acquisitions. This is the first Platinum Equity operation in Italy and confirms the growing interest of the fund in the European market.
