Pemberton subscribes a 265 mln euro bond issued by Italy’s ReLIfe. It will finance announced acquisitions of General Packaging and Plastipolver and more to come

ReLife Group, an Italian leading group for the management of the entire process of valorization of separate waste collections, in the portfolio of the Xenon Private Equity V Fund, announced on Friday July 9th the issue of a 265 million euro bond, which was fully subscribed from the European debt fund managed by Pemberton Asset Management (see the press release here).

The proceeds from the bond will be used in part to finance the purchase of 100% of General Packaging, one of the main Italian companies in the production of corrugated cardboard sheets and boxes, made for over 80% from recycled paper, and of the Plastipoliver group, specialized in the recovery and treatment of plastic materials. The signing of the agreement for the two acquisitions was announced at the end of June (see here a previous article by BeBeez). The remaining part of the proceeds from the bond will instead be made available to the ReLife group to finance further acquisitions in the world of the circular economy.

ReLife was assisted by Rothschild & Co in financing structuring and partner selection
financial, and by the Pavia & Ansaldo law firm in defining contracts. Pemberton and Banca Finint, as Security Agent, Paying Agent and representative of the underwriters, were assisted by the Linklaters law firm.

Thanks to the two new acquisitions, the consolidated revenues of ReLife Group reaches over 250 million euros and 650 employees, with 18 production sites in Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Tuscany.

The production activities of ReLife Group are organized into 4 divisions: ReLife Recycling (with over 700 thousand tons of waste sent for recycling); ReLife Paper Mill (with over 115 thousand tons of gray cardboard reels produced from waste); ReLife Paper Packaging (with over 80 thousand tons of boxes produced); and ReLife Plastic Packaging (with over 15 thousand tons of plastic products).

The ReLife Group, operating in the field of collection and transformation of waste that can be used and in various sectors of waste paper, was established in October 2018 by the integration between the Benfante group, operating with a network of collection, transport and sorting companies of recoverable materials, and Cartiera Bosco Marengo, manufacturer of cardboard from recovered paper (see here a previous article by BeBeez). The project involved 11 entrepreneurs, with the support of Xenon Private Equity, already a minority shareholder of the Benfante group since 2014 (see here a previous article by BeBeez).

A year before the integration into ReLife, in 2017, Benfante had acquired 100% of the Ecolfer Group, a leading company that has been operating in the Triveneto for over 60 years mainly in the collection and recycling of ferrous scrap, wood, paper and plastic, with the Cecotto family which continued to manage Ecolfer and which reinvested for a minority in Benfante (see here a previous article by BeBeez).

In February 2020 ReAl, a joint venture between Alia Servizi Ambientali spa and ReLife, announced the acquisition of the entire capital of Metalcarta srl, a company active in the sector of recycling of waste paper and other recyclable waste (see here the press release of the time). ReAI, established in turn in November 2019 (see here the press release of the time), is a company dedicated to the enhancement of paper and cardboard from separate collection, which implements a technologically advanced recycling chain project. Alia Servizi Ambientali, the fifth Italian player in the sector, is the manager of environmental services in 58 municipalities in the provinces of Florence, Pistoia and Prato, an area that has over 1.5 million resident inhabitants. Finally, last January ReLife acquired San Ginese Recuperi srl, owner of a waste treatment and recycling plant in Capannori (Lucca) (see here the press release of the time).

As for Pemberton, it is a UK asset manager specializing in investments in the credit, private debt, direct lending, coporate bond and invoice financing sectors. In August 2014, the insurance group Legal & General Group Plc entered the capital of the asset manager, with a 40% stake.

Pemberton is active today with the Pemberton European Mid-Market Debt Fund II, which raised  3.2 billion euros in 2019 and with the Pemberton Strategic Credit Opportunities Fund, which also raised one billion euros in 2019. In 2016, the asset manager closed the fundraising of the Pemberton European Mid-Market Debt Fund I at 1.2 billion euros.

Pemberton is headquartered in London, but also has offices in Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Milan, Madrid and Luxembourg. The Italian activities are coordinated from Milan by the senior advisor Francesco Di Trapani. In Italy, Pemberton has already invested in the debt of Dental Pro, Eco Eridania, Isoclima, OCS and Italcer.