Good morning Eurohubsters, Craig McGlashan here with Thursday’s Dealflow.
I hope you’ve had a big breakfast this morning, because if you haven’t then the first deal we’re going to look at today might make you a bit hungry.
Hungry for growth. Investindustrial plans to evolve Italian marketplace chain Eataly into multiple formats to fit a variety of markets and locations, according to the firm’s managing principal, Antonio Gatti, and senior principal Carl Nauckhoff.
In late September, Investindustrial announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire a 52 percent stake in Eataly for €200 million. Existing shareholders Eatinvest, the Baffigo/Miroglio family and Clubitaly will own the rest.
Eataly, headquartered in Alba, promotes and sells food ‘Made in Italy’. It has been in operation for almost 20 years and has locations globally.
“For the moment, Eataly is only one format, but the plan is to make it nimbler,” Gatti told PE Hub Europe’s Nina Lindholm. “For example, Eataly in airports works extremely well. But there’s only one Eataly at an airport – in Rome.”
London-based Investindustrial is not stopping at airports. “Eataly can be sliced, maintaining the brand, to adapt to every possible type of location – even small corners,” Gatti explained.
New formats may include smaller, homely restaurants or even ice cream parlours. Eataly was originally 60 percent retail and 40 percent restaurant, but the restaurant part will become more dominant, according to Gatti. “Therefore, we believe that the future flagship will be more 40/60 or 30/70, rather than 60/40.”
Read Nina’s full interview to find out Investindustrial’s strategy for pushing Eataly into other countries and a little more about why the co-founders chose to bring in private equity.
Cashing in. Switching to the latest deals, Corsair announced that it has completed the sale of the UK ATM and TestLink divisions of its portfolio company NoteMachine.
NoteMachine, headquartered in Crickhowell, UK, manages more than 9,000 ATMs. Following the deal, Corsair’s holdings will primarily comprise Eurochange, NoteMachine’s division providing specialist foreign currency and international payment services to retail and business clients.
Corsair is a New York-based private equity firm.
The buyer, the Brink’s Company, is a Richmond, Virginia-headquartered total cash management services company.
Check out David Wansboro’s coverage of the deal to find out how much the Brink’s Company paid for the divisions as well as NoteMachine’s revenue and EBITDA information.
Playing it safe. Hg-backed Ideagen announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy US health and safety Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform ProcessMAP.
Ideagen, acquired by Hg in July, is a UK-based provider of compliance software for regulated industries. The company serves companies across industries, including life sciences, banking, finance, insurance and healthcare.
ProcessMAP, based in Sunrise, Florida, provides clients with enterprise-scale SaaS products to aid efficiency and intelligence across health and safety management, risk and claims management and environment and sustainability.
Check out our full coverage to hear more about Hg’s plans for bringing the businesses together, as well as Ideagen’s other purchase this year.
Going the distance. Triton announced that its Triton Fund IV portfolio company EQOS Group has acquired Colas Rail Belgium. The Enghien, Belgium-headquartered company focuses on catenary construction and track construction. EQOS Group, headquartered in Biberach, Germany, is a service provider for technical infrastructures in Europe.
EQOS will continue to operate Colas Rail Belgium’s headquarters in Enghien for the long-distance transport business and the company will do business under the name of EQOS Energie Belgium. The company generated approximately €23 million in revenue in 2021.
Find out how the acquisition will add to EQOS’s product offering here.
Triton Partners, the London-headquartered private equity firm, has a portfolio of 49 companies. It invests across strategies in the industrial tech, services, consumer and healthcare sectors. EQOS Group was acquired by Triton Fund IV in February 2014.
Triton’s portfolio companies have been busy in recent weeks, with OCU acquiring Opals. OCU followed up that deal with a further acquisition, of InICT.
Catching up. I’ll be with Nina and David at the BVCA Summit at the Landmark Hotel in London today. I hope to see many of you there – drop me a note at craig.m@peimedia.com if you’d like to meet up.
That’s it from me. I’ll hopefully see you at the conference but if not, I’ll wish you a great weekend, as Nina will be on Dealflow duty to end the week tomorrow.
Cheers,
Craig
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