Cerved Group paves the way towards its ipo at the Italian Stock Exchange. Led by ceo Gianandrea De Bernardis, Cerved is Italy’s leading provider of business credit information. The news was confirmed last Friday March 7 by Cerved Group itself with a note (download here the Italian press release), telling that advisors have been given mandate in order to evaluate ipo opportunities.
Cerved has the most comprehensive database of corporate information in Italy, including corporate and financial details, payment history, customer and supplier relationships, and proprietary information sourced through its own network of interviewers. The group is made up of several companies (Centrale dei Bilanci, Cerved, Lince, Databank, Finservice, Consit e Cerved Credit Management) and since January 2013 is controlled by CVC Capital Partners who acquired it from previous private equity owners Bain Capital and Clessidra sgr for 1.13 billion euros (enterprise value). Cerved generated revenues of 292 million euros in 2012 with a 143 millions ebitda and a 287 million euros net financial debt. The deal was financed by a 780 million euros high yield bond issue in three tranches listed on the ExtraMot Pro market of the Italian Stock Exchange.
