Italian entrepreneur Flavio Briatore, who used to be Formula 1 team manager, first with the Benetton team and then with the Renault team, is ready to sell 49% of the Twiga, Billionaire, Cipriani Beefbar and Crazy Fish restaurants and entertainment venues to the British family office Clementy Asset Management. The premises involved in the negotiations, located in Montecarlo, London, Dubai and Forte dei Marmi, have an enterprise value of 150 million euros and are expected to generate a turnover close to 70 millions, MF Milano Finanza wrote yesterday. Mediobanca, on behalf of Mr. Briatore, has been looking for a financial partner for one year and a half (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
As anticipated at the time, excluded from the sale to Clementy are: the clothing sector is (the fashion designer Philippe Plein and the real estate developer Antonio Percassi entered the label Billionarie Couture two years ago); the real estate and tourist activities that Briatore developed years ago in Africa, such as the luxury resort Lion in the Sun in Malindi, which however also ended up on the market months without success given the collapse of the country’s tourist flows; and the tour operator Billionaire Travel, domiciled in Switzerland.
Back in Spring 2013, Mr. Briatore had sold the majority of beach clubs Billionaire Sardinia (Porto Cervo), Istanbul and Bodrum (Turkey), Monte Carlo and Twiga Beach Club Versilia to Far East Leisure, a vehicle of Bay Capital, a Singapore investment group, with the aim of growing the brand, also through the opening of new Billionaire Clubs in Asia, Dubai, Singapore and China.
Clementy Asset Management is a family office based in London, with offices also in Geneva, London, Moscow and Rome. He is specialized in the investment of unlisted companies, active in particular in the retail and technology sectors. It is led by managing partner Bruce Bower, with a background as manager of two Russian investment funds: Kazimir Partners and Verno Capital.
