Italmobiliare confirmed that it is willing to pay an extraordinary (0.6 euros) and an ordinary dividend (1.2 euros) to its shareholders even in this coronavirus scenario (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Italmobiliare’s chairman Laura Zanetti and ceo Carlo Pesenti said to investors that the fund was going to invest 500 million euros in new investments in non-cyclic sectors and the industry of food, domotics and high tech. However, such resources will support the portfolio company for facing the emergency related to the COVID-19. Italmobiliare’s Nav is in the region of 93.8 million (43% from unlisted companies). The company will hold on 21 April, Tuesday, a shareholders meeting for asking whether to approve the payment of the dividends.
Troubled Italian listed contractor Astaldi sold to IC Ictas Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (Ictas) its stake in the concession for building the Northern Marmara Highway (NMH) in Turkey (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Rome Court gave its approval for this agreement with Ictas. Astaldi will invest the proceeds of such sale for paying unsecured creditors through hybrid instruments. Ictas will have Astaldi’s stake in NMH and all the related credits for 315 million US Dollars. Astald will pay its Turkish creditors with 142 million. Ictas will wire in one or more instalments the due amount to Astaldi as soon as it sells a majority stake of NMH to a group of Chinese entrepreneurs. In May 2019, Astaldi and its Turkish partner IC Yatirim Holding restarted talks for selling the concession for NMH to a consortium that China Merchants Group. Astaldi had a 33% stake in NMH that was worth 350 million.
Meccanica Bpr, an Italian producer of components for the aviation industry in which Italian incubator Bemycompany invested 2 million euros in March 2019, is holding talks for acquiring two Italian competitors, Antonio Quintino Chieffo said to BeBeez (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Chieffo is the ceo of Bemycompany. In 2019, Meccanica Bpr posted sales of above 2 million euros (+30% yoy).
Paolo Berlusconi Finanziaria (PBF), the financial holding of Paolo Berlusconi, acquired 18.45% of Società Europea di Edizioni, the publisher of Italian daily Il Giornale (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The vendor Arnoldo Mondadori Editori has now 18.445% of Società Europea di Edizioni, while PBF has 75.54%. Società Europea di Edizioni is based in Milan and its ceo is Andrea Favari. The company has sales of 25.25 million euros and an ebitda of minus 8.3 million.
Diesse Diagnostica Senese, a company that belongs to ArchiMed, is developing a blood test for discovering the coronavirus infections in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients (See here a previous post by BeBeez). This test would be the first able to trace the antibodies for Covid-19. Rome-based Istituto Nazionale per le Malattie Infettive Lazzaro Spallanzani, the first research center in the world that isolated the COVID-19 virus, is appraising the test and if it will provide a positive assessment, the product will be available for distribution by the end of April 2020. Massimiliano Boggetti is the ceo of Diesse. Loic Kubitza is one of the partners of ArchiMed. The fund acquired the majority of Diesse in May 2019 with the support of MPS Capital Services and BPER Banca. Orphée, the vendor, received 13.3 million euros for its 45% stake in Diesse (acquired in February 2013) and an earn-out of up to 1.2 million. Orphée’s 79.6% belongs to Polish listed PZ Cormay, a medical devices producer. Diesse Diagnostica Senes is part of the Elite community of Borsa Italiana and has sales of 22.85 million (21.5 million yoy), an ebitda of 6 million (4.6 million), net profits of 2.2 million (1.2 million), and net financial debt of 10.1 million (14.1 million). ArchiMed is a European private equity investor in healthcare that the management of 3i Global Healthcare founded in 2014.
European private equity and venture capital funds have a dry powder of 265 billion dollars (two billion more since December 2019 and about 20 billion since the end of 2017), said a report the Preqin published for BeBeez (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Such resources could support SMEs to face the turmoil related to the COVID-19. The BeBeez Report about the fundraising of Italian private capital funds available since 24 March, Tuesday, for the subscribers to BeBeez News Premium and BeBeez Private Data Combo, said that from 2018 to present Italian private capital funds have raised 14.2 billion euros.
As BeBeez previously reported, the markets of high yield corporate bonds and leveraged loan, two debt instruments for m&a and private equity transactions, may go in distress (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The remedies that the Trump administration and the Fed announced in Usa as well as the proposals that the European Central Bank and other institutions put forward seem to be insufficient for the leverage loan investors (see here a commentary of DBRS rating agency about the action that the Governments implemented in different areas. See here the Fed press release about the further extensive new measures it aims to launch. See here the statement about deficit spending authorization from the EU Council). The S&P Global Leverage Loans index dropped to 1771 points at the levels hit in 2014 for an implicit yield of 13.1% and an average loan price of 0.7698 cents of the total face value of 1.4 billion US Dollars. This can trouble those banks that issued bridge loans and look to refinance them with bond or syndicated loans. For example, Permira acquired Italian fashion firm Golden Goose from Carlyle on the ground of an enterprise value of 1.28 billion euros, with a pool of banks that provided a bridge loan facility of 450 millions. A further issue can arise from the stock of leveraged loans that financial firms securitized through CLOs (collaterlized loan obligations). S&P said that at the end of 2019, US banks owned CLOs for about 100 billion US Dollars or 11.9 more than 2018, 15% of the global CLOs market amounting to 675 billion.
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