Banca Popolare di Milano sold its 20% stake in the shareholders capital of italian mid-market private equity firm Wise sgr to Wise sgr’s managers who already held the remaining 80% stake.
The deal was signed a few days ago and has been announced yesterday as soon as the Italian temporary employment agency OpenjobMetis, controlled by Wise sgr, started listing on the Italian Stock Exchange. This is because in the ipo prospectus the old Wise sgr’s shareholders structure had been published (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The debut of OpenjobMetis was a success yesterday as the stock closed at 6,82 euros per share up 3.3% from the 6,6 euros ipo price. The global offer was 2.5x subscribed.
Coming back to Wise sgr, the private equity firm is now completely independent and controlled by its managers: Paolo Gambarini and Michele Semenzato own a 20% stake each; Valentina Franceschini and Stefano Ghetti own an 8% each; Fabrizio Medea and Roberto Saviane own a 14% each; while Wise sgr holds treasury shares fo the remaining 16% of the capital.
Bpm has been a shareholder in Wise sgr since September 2005 when Wise sgr acquired Banca Popolare di Milano’s private equity assets and incorporated the bank’s private euqity firm, BPM Private Equity sgr. The deal also provided that Bpm committed 40 million euros in Wisequity II Fund, becoming one of the sponsors of the fund together with gruppo De Agostini and Federmacchine (Federazione Nazionale delle associazioni di beni strumentali) (see here Bpm’s FY 2005 Consolidated Statement – Report of the directors at page 9)
Founded in 2000 by Mr. Gambarini and Mr. Semenzato, Wise sgr now run two private equity funds: Wisequity II, which raised 170 million euros in 2010 and is now divesting its portfolio ( see here for the sale of EidosMedia to Hg Capital, a previous post by BeBeez), and Wisequity III, which raised 180 miillion euros last year.
Wise sgr is now in fundraising for its first private debt fund focused on Italy’s SMEs debt, Wise Private Debt Fund, targeting 250 million euros in committements. The fund obtained last July a 25 million euros committement by Fondo Italiano d’Investimento (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
