Italy’s private equity and m&a weekly roundup. News from Carlyle, ADIA, ION Investment, Investindustrial, Ardian, Generali, Progressio, Italcer and more

Ad Hoc Group (AHG), the company that Carlyle created with Man GLG and Stellex Capital, finally acquired Officine Maccaferri, a civil engineering  group in receivership (see here a previous post by BeBeez). AHG owns 54% of Maccaferri’s 190 million euros senior bonds with a 5.75% yield due to mature in 2021 and will pay 9.3 million for the company as well as issuing a bridge loan of 40 millions.  

Abu Dhabi’s Adia is holding co-investment talks with KKR for the acquisition of FiberCop (see here a previous post by BeBeez). KKR may sell to Adia a 30% of the vehicle through which it owns 37.5% of Fibercop for 1.8 billion euros. Adia may hold 11% of TIM’s secondary network (worth 500-600 million euros)  

ION Investment Group, a provider of technology for finance that Andrea Pignataro founded, will list on Nasdaq its SPAC ScION Tech Growth I for which set a fundraising target of 500 million US Dollars and eventually a further 75 million with the exercise of the overallotment option (see here a previous post by BeBeez). UBS and Citigroup will act as bookrunner. ScION Tech Growth I aims to sell 50 million shares at 10 Dollars each plus a third of a warrant with a strike price of 11.50 Dollars. The sponsor committed to invest 100 – 300 million once carried on a business combination. The Spac will target fintech and softwar businesses with an enterprise value (EV) of 3 – 10 billion. Pignataro heads the spac together with Mathew Cestar. 

NYSE-listed SPAC Investindustrial Acquisition Corp (IAC) raised 402.5 million US Dollars after the exercise of the overallotment option (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Investindustrial signed a forward purchase agreement and committed to buy up to 25 million shares of the Spac at 10 Dollars per share or 250 million through a private placement that will take place with the closing of an eventual business combination. In this case IAC’s market capitalization will be of 652.5 million.  

Since last July Investindustrial has acquired three Italian fertility clinics through its portfolio company GeneraLife (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In 2019, GeneraLife also had acquired Spain’s Ginefiv  and Czech FertiCare. So now the group has pro-forma revenues of 40 million euros and is one of the leading player in the market.

Ardian and Milan-listed A2A signed a memorandum of understanding ahead of eventual partnerships in the fields of production of hydrogeno out of renewable sources (see here a previous post by BeBeez).  

Global Infrastructure, an investor in the infrastructures sector that is part of Gruppo Generali, is launching two vehicles for investing in debt and equity (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The funds have a fundraising target of 400 and 700 million euros and Generali poured 145 million in each of them.  

Progressio acquired 30% of Assist Digital (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The target’s executive chairman Enrico Donati, ceo Francesca Gabrielli and coo Franco Fradiani will keep their operative roles. Assist Digital has sales in the region of 100 million euros and an ebitda of 10 million  

The Quagliuolo family, owner of Sicom, together with a group of managers purchased Acqua Vera from Gruppo Sanpellegrino, part of Nestlé (see here a previous post by BeBeez).  Rumours say that the deal is worth 75 million euros. Acqua Vera has sales of 80 million.  

Italcer, a holding of Italian tiles producers that belongs to Mandarin Capital Partners, acquired Cedir-Ceramiche di Romagna from the Andalò family (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Cedir will merge with La Fabbrica. Graziano Verdi is Italcer’s ceo and cofounder. Cedir previously started a debt-restructuring.  

Quadrivio Group’s Industry 4.0 Fund acquired the majority of EPI from the founder Lorenzo Forte who will keep a minority stake (see here a previous post by BeBeez). EPI has sales of 25 million euros with a 10% net profit and aims to reinforce its e-commerce sales channel.   

Milan-listed MutuiOnline acquired SOS Tariffe (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The target’s founders Alberto Mazzetti, Giuliano Messina and Umberto Lentini and minority shareholder Noosalab, (invested in 2012) will get 25.7 million at the closing and a further 3 million in the next three years with an earn out of up to 0.8 million by January 2022. MutuiOnline financed such an acquisition with bank loans and its own resources. Mazzetti, Messina and Lentini will keep their operative roles for the next 12 months. SOS Tariffe has sales of 8.2 million, with an ebitda 0.1 million and net cash of 1.9 million. Marco Pescarmona is the chairman of MutuiOnline and founded the company in 2000 together with Alessandro Fracassi. Mutuionline has a market capitalization in the region of 1.1 billion.  

Eulero Capital, a permanent capital fund, invested in Team 1994, the holding of which is part Area (see here a previous post by BeBeez).  Team 1994 was foiunded by Dario Oreglia. Area has sales of 12.13 million euros, an ebitda of 4.12 million and net cash of 7 million. The company will invest the raised resources in its organic growth and acquisitions.  

Musetti, a coffee producer, paid 15 million euros for acquiring Caffé Bonomi from the eponymous family (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Caffè Bonomi has sales of 10.3 million, an ebitda of 1.4 million and a net financial debt of 2.66 million. Caffè Musetti has revenues of 27.3 million, an ebitda of 4.1 million and a net financial debt of 25,000 euros  

Sonnedix, a solar energy producer that belongs to JP Morgan Asset Management, acquired a portfolio of projects for grid parity photovoltaic plants in their development stage from Horus Green Energy Investment (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Ics sold the assets.  

Healthware Group, a strategic consulting firm for the heathcare sector in which Fondo Italiano d’Investimento invested in 2019, acquired Finnish competitor Make Helsinki (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The target will rebrand as Healthware and its ceo and founder Petteri Kolehmainen will act as managing director Finland of Healthware Group. Healthware has sales of 8.7 million euros, an ebitda in the region of 0.86 million and net cash of 0.66 million.  

Style Capital acquired the majority of Australian fashion firm Zimmermann from the foundress Nicole (Nicky) Zimmermann and General Atlantic which acquired a minority in 2016 (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Rumours say that the transaction is worth 400 million euros, on the ground of an ebitda of 38 million. Zimmermann hired Rotschild & Co. and Allens as advisors.

Enpam, the pension funds of Italian physicians, invested 60 million euros in Fondo Consolidamento Crescita (FICC), a private equity fund of Fondo italiano d’investimento (see here a previous post by BeBeez).  

Compagnia di San Paolo and Fondazione Cariplo signed an agreement for  investing together in private equity and venture capital over a period of several years (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Such a partnership aims to create scale economies out of the resources of Italy’s main banking foundations. Giovanni Fosti and Francesco Profumo are the chairmen of Fondazione Cariplo and of Compagnia di San Paolo. Fondazione Cariplo and Compagnia di San Paolo alredy invested in Futura Invest, Redo, Quaestio Holding, InvestiRe, Sinloc, F2i, Equiter, Ream, Club Acceleratori, SocialFare Seed, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, and Iniziative Patrimoniali.

MGA, TLS and Soteco, part of Gruppo Luccini, hired Cavour Corporate Finance for finding a majority partner, sources said to BeBeez (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The companies belong to the Luccini Family and have sales in the region of 67 million euros with a 27% ebitda margin.  

The Equity Club (Thec), a club deal that Mediobanca launched, aims to acquire in the region of 25% of Lincotek (fka Turbocoating) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Thec will subscribe a capital increase on the ground of an enterprise value of 100 million euros. Mediobanca could co-invest and allow the company to raise 150 – 200 million resources for new acqusitionsand increase in five years the current 160 million turnover to 300 million  

Francesca Laera and Paolo Intermite joined th private equity team of Synergo Capital (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Laera will be a partner and a member of the investment committee while Intermite will act as investment associate and be member of the investment committee.