Private equity sector has been quite active in the week ending yesterday in Italy.
Azimut Holding, the Milan-listed Asset Management firm, may see shareholder Timone Fiduciaria increasing its current 15% stake to 25% (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Timone Fiduciaria is also discussing the sale of a stake to private equity firm Peninsula Capital. In 2002, private equity firm Apax Partners and the company’s chairman Pietro Giuliani acquired Azimut from Bipop-Carire through a management buyout. The financial sponsor listed the business on Milan stock market in 2004, and sold all its interest in the firm in 2005.
Evoca, an Italian vending machine producer, acquired Spanish competitor Quality Espresso (QE) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). QE sells its products to HoReCa clients and owns the brands Futurmat, Visacrem, Italcrem, Mairali, and has the licence for the Gaggia brand for Spain and most of the Spanish speaking South American countries. Last year Evoca had sales of 416.5 million of euros (385.1 million in 2016) and an adjusted ebitda of 95.1 million (89.9 million). Last year, Evoca acquired VE Global Solutions, based in Cleveland, and Les Entreprises Cafection, headquartered in Quebec City. In 2016 Evoca purchased Saeco Vending and the licence for the brands Saeco and Gaggia from Royal Phillips. Since 2015, Evoca belongs to Lone Star, which acquired the asset from Equistone (fka Barclays Private Equity) and Investcorp.
Sovena, a Portugues producer of edible oil, created Sovena Italia, a joint venture with  Olio Dante, for developing international private label products (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Biagio Mataluni will be  Sovena Italia’s chairman. Sovena has revenues of 2 billion euros. Olio Dante’s sales are worth 73.5 millions, an ebitda of one million and a net loss of 8.4 millions, and net financial debt of 40.7 millions. In 2016 Private equity firms Oxy Capital and Attestor Capital invested 20 million euros for Olio Dante capital increase that was part of a debt restructuring worth 60 millions.
Archimede, the Spac with a focus on the insurance sector, listed on the Aim Italia after having raised 47 million of euros (see here a previous post byBeBeez) . Andrea Battista, Gianpiero Rosmarini and Matteo Carbone launched the firm. UniCredit has acted as global coordinator to the firm, Banca Finnat Euramerica held the role of Nomad and Specialist. Board members of Archimede are Battista (executive chairman), Rosmarini, Dario Trevisan, Mayer Nahum, and Carlotta De Franceschi (non-executive directors).
Investindustrial raised 375 million of euros for Investindustrial Growth, a private equity fund for European lower-mid market business (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The firm already closed two investments: Benvic, a French PVC producer, and OKA, an UK-based furniture company.
Recordati, a Milan-listed pharmaceutical company, attracted the interest of private equity firm CVC Capital Partners (see here a previous post by BeBeez). However, talks are now in stand-by because of Italian political uncertainty. The company’s controlling shareholder is the Recordati Family which owns a 51% stake. The company’s enterprise value is of 8 billion of euros.
