Good morning Eurohubsters, Craig McGlashan here with the Dealflow.
There’s a definite Italian theme to our coverage today, from exits to acquisitions and even a bit of football thrown in for good measure. Lots to cover, so let’s dive right in.
Logical candidate. My colleague Nina Lindholm has written a deep dive on ArchiMed’s exit from healthcare logistics provider Bomi Group.
The private equity firm announced on Monday that it has Bomi to courier and logistics group UPS. The sale yielded a 4x return for ArchiMed’s MED Platform I, sources told PE Hub Europe, sources told PE Hub Europe.
Bomi Group, headquartered in Spino d’Adda, Italy, provides logistics services to the healthcare supply chain. These include warehousing, transport management, home care deliveries and consignment stock management.
Bomi attracted financial and strategic buyers, but, according to Ballester, ArchiMed and Bomi’s management saw UPS as the “logical candidate”. UPS is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Under ArchiMed’s wing, Bomi completed 15 acquisitions in three years and expanded its business in Europe and the Americas. “In partnership with management and the founding family, we rapidly internationalised Bomi’s exceptional expertise in healthcare logistics and applied it to a wider range of sector services,” said ArchiMed managing partner André-Michel Ballester.
Read the full article here.
Life of luxury. We’ve been hearing a lot about how companies either in or suppliers to the luxury retail sector are well positioned to be resilient during economic downturns, such as is taking hold of Europe right now. I’d spoken to BC Partners about that subject through the prism of its co-purchase of Fedrigoni with Bain Capital – and now Nina has expanded on the theme by speaking to Aksìa Group about its recent purchase of Gommatex Spalmati.
Prato, Italy-based Gommatex Spalmati specialises in the production of high-quality, sustainable and customisable coagulated and coated fabrics for use by major fashion and luxury brands. In 2021, Gommatex launched a new solvent-free product, Akkadueo Bio, to reduce pollution caused by traditional dimethylformamide production.
Luxury is a new addition to Milan-headquartered Aksìa’s portfolio. “This acquisition has enabled the completion of our portfolio in this context of Italian excellences sectors,” Sara Perillo, partner at Aksìa, told Nina.
Completing the set was not the only driver behind the deal. “Luxury has always been a very resilient sector, as demonstrated during the covid outbreak, and is expected to confirm this capability also in case of a recession scenario,” Perillo explained.
Aksìa considers Gommatex to be well positioned in the high-end luxury sector, and “at the forefront” for ESG aspects. This, combined with the company’s unique product offering, will create a positive growth momentum for the company, according to Perillo.
You can find out more about Aksìa’s plans for Gommatex in Nina’s full interview here.
Footing the bill. I love football (or soccer for anyone reading this in the States) so it was a delight to celebrate the restart of the season by doing a little roundup of some of the most interesting private equity deals in the sport this year.
What struck me most was the variety of deals, from the likes of Sixth Street that got exposure to the two biggest teams in Spain to those that have gone for more conventional ownership models like RedBird Capital Partners’ purchase of Italy’s AC Milan.
One private equity firm, speaking off the record, said that it has a “thematic conviction in the best global sports brands continuing to strengthen their businesses as consumer behaviour shifts allowing for more global, year-round fan engagement”.
That suggests we’re likely to see a lot more of these deals in European football and sport in general. I can only hope that a private equity firm with deep pockets takes an interest in my team (which shall remain nameless to avoid any suggestion of bias on my part). As the team is doing so badly, any investment can only have upside…
Anyway, you can read the full article here.
I’d also love to get your thoughts on where private equity might move next in European sport. Drop me a line at craig.m@peimedia.com
Agriculture. Carlyle announced on Monday that it has bought a controlling stake in Italian manufacturer Ocmis Group.
The Castelvetro di Modena-based company manufactures advanced irrigation systems for the agricultural market. In 2021 it achieved a total turnover of €85 million with an operating margin above 20%.
“Ocmis has a unique position in a growing market with strong fundamentals and we believe that together we can deliver consistent growth,” said Filippo Penatti, managing director of the Carlyle Europe Partners advisory team.
The deal came as Carlyle CEO Kewsong Lee resigned in a sudden exit – read more on PE Hub here.
Another add-on. Abris Capital Partners-backed GreenGroup announced on Monday that it has bought UAB Ecso, a low-density polyethylene recycling company headquartered in Vilnius. Bucharest-based GreenGroup is an integrated recycling group that specialises in polyethylene terephthalate recycling and production of polyester staple fibre as well as offering electronics recycling, glass waste recycling and industrial waste management services.
This deal follows GreenGroup’s purchase of SIGAD, a Romanian developer of environmental reporting software, in July.
“This latest acquisition consolidates GreenGroup’s recycling activities over the past 20 years and is a decisive step in the group’s strategy to become a key player in polyolefins recycling in the region,” said Adrian Stănculescu, partner and head of Abris Romania.
Taking medicine. Inflexion announced on Monday that it has sold London-headquartered Pharmaspectra to a US-listed buyer. The deal is Inflexion’s fourth sale to a US-listed buyer in the last 12 months and its sixth exit overall in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, generating an IRR of 25 percent.
Pharmaspectra owns the world’s largest continuously updated and integrated online repository of disseminated medical science information. The data sets are used across the pharmaceutical sector, with 13 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies using Pharmaspectra’s services.
“We are proud of the growth and development of Pharmaspectra during our stewardship,” said Simon Turner, managing partner at Inflexion. “The business has significantly increased its number of clients whilst enhancing its product offering through an ambitious programme of digital enhancement and international expansion, all contributing towards significant client wins.”
That’s all from me today – we’ll speak again on Wednesday.
Cheers,
Craig
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