Engineering, a group specialized in software development and technology for public and private companies, controlled by the Apax and NB Renaissance private equity firms since it was delisted from Piazza Affari in Summer 2016, is back on the market (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Infact Il Sole 24 Ore wrote that the two funds have decided to start againg an auction which was suspended some months ago. Private equity funds are queing already for the deal with Pai and Bain Capital that are said to be among them.
Reuters had released the rumors about the opening of the auction last March, when the transaction was still in a very early stage, so much so that the advisors had not yet been appointed (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The transaction was then suspended to solve some problems, first and foremost the company’s financial leverage. Today the company is instead ready again to go for sale.
To date Engineering is 88% owned jointly by the NB Renaissance and Apax funds; while about 12% (with a 6% voting right) is owned by the founder Michele Cinaglia. At the time of the takeover bid, the group had been paid by the funds 846.5 million euros, of which 533.85 million paid with own resources and the rest with recourse to medium-long term credit lines (see here the Offering Document). The funds were said to have started the sale process after some expressions of interest came from some international private equity firms such as Permira and BC Partners. It is possible that NB Renaisssance and the Cinaglia family will reinvest for a minority.
Engineering is valued at over 1.5 billion euros, equal to 9x the ebitda. An assessment easily explained by the numbers. In 2018 the group reached a production value of 1.18 billion euro, + 15% from a billion euro share reached at the end of 2017, when it had already grown by over 10%. Adjusted ebitda reached 147.2 millions from 122.9 millions in 2017 (+ 19.8%), when it had already grown by 13.5%, and net profit was 57.7 millions (+ 10% from 52.3 millions the year before, when it had grown by 15.3%). All with a net financial debt down to 69 millions from the previous 138 millions(see here a previous post by BeBeez).
With approximately 11,000 professionals in 65 locations (in Italy, Belgium, Germany, Norway, the Republic of Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil and the USA), the Engineering group designs, develops and manages innovative solutions for the business areas in which digitization generates the most changes. We remind you that last September the company took over 100% of the Italian fintech Deus Technology (see here a previous post by BeBeez), while in October it acquired 80% of the Digitelematica srl software house (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
