DeA Capital backs takeaway chain Alice Pizza

Unquote understands that the company's founding Giovannini family retained the remaining minority holding, divided between Domenico Giovannini, with 6%, and his daughter Luna and son Lorenzo, who will hold 12% each. 

The GP will appoint a new CEO and management team to support the business in its next phase of expansion.

Unquote understands that the acquisition was conducted via a newco called Alice Pizza Holding. 

The GP deployed capital from its fund Idea Taste of Italy, a food- and agri-business-dedicated vehicle that held a final close on its €218m hard-cap in January 2017 and is now 70% deployed.

The GP told Unquote that it plans to launch a new vehicle in 2020, Idea Taste of Italy 2, with a €250m target. The fund will follow the same approach as its predecessor and will deploy equity tickets in the €15-20m range.

In addition to the equity drawn down from the fund, debt financing was provided by Banco BPM (as agent bank), UBI Banca and Illimity Bank. The debt package includes a senior loan to support the acquisition as well as capex lines to finance further bolt-ons and new shops opening in the coming months, Unquote understands.

Company
Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Rome, Me&Alice controls pizza takeaway chain Alice Pizza, which sells pizza by the slice, made with ingredients sourced from local suppliers and farmers.

The company manages 154 pizza takeaway shops across Italy and five located abroad, in Madrid, Dubai, Philadelphia, Santiago di Compostela and Malta. It generated EBITDA of around €6m from revenues of €76m in 2018. 

People
Idea Taste of Italy – Pierluca Antolini (managing director).

Advisers
Equity –  Studio Legale Pedersoli e Associati (legal); Studio Legale Tributario CBA (tax); Essentia Advisory (corporate finance); KPMG (corporate finance).
Company – Studio Legale e Tributario CMS (legal, tax).

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• Buyouts
• Southern Europe
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• DeA Capital
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