Consilium, Progressio buy Gelit

Alessia Argentieri
07 May 2019

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Private equity firms Consilium and Progressio, alongside MMM, a company controlled by Italian entrepreneur Massimo Menna, have wholly acquired frozen foods specialist Gelit from NYSE-listed business Conagra Brands.

Unquote understands that the deal gives the company an enterprise value of around €80m, which equates to almost 9x its 2018 EBITDA.

Consilium and Progressio bought a combined 70% stake by acquiring around 35% each, while MMM bought the remaining 30%, Unquote understands.

Consilium invested in Gelit via its €145m Consilium Private Equity Fund III, while Progressio deployed capital from its Progressio Investimenti III, which held an interim close on €185m in February 2019. In addition, Mediocredito Italiano, part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, provided debt financing to support the deal.

Gelit CEO Stefano Mattioli and the rest of the management team will continue to lead the company and boost its growth plan focused on international expansion and market consolidation.

The acquisition ends an auction process started in January 2019, when Conagra mandated BNP Paribas to conduct the sale. In addition to Consilium and Progressio, press reports mentioned Whitebridge, Mandarin Capital and Peak Rock Capital as potential bidders, as well as several industrial players including Surgital, Rolli and Orogel.

Previous funding
Consilium and Iniziativa Gestione Investimenti acquired Gelit in April 2007 from Barilla, buying an 80% stake and a 15% stake respectively for around €20m. In June 2012, the GPs sold the company to NYSE-listed Ralcorp Holdings, which was bought by Conagra in November 2012 for a total consideration of $4.94bn.

Company
Founded in 1977 and headquartered in Doganella di Ninfa, Gelit specialises in the production and distribution of frozen pasta meals and frozen crêpes for food retailers and restaurants. The company generated EBITDA of €9m from revenues of €45m in 2018, 50% of which came from outside Italy.

People
Gelit – Stefano Mattioli (CEO).
Progressio – Filippo Gaggini (partner).

Advisers
Equity – Banca IMI (corporate finance); BonelliErede (legal); Long Term Partners (financial due diligence); EY (financial due diligence); Russo De Rosa Associati (legal, tax).
Vendor – BNP Paribas (corporate finance); Jones Day (legal).