Ambienta sells Energy Wave to EQT-backed Antas

Alessia Argentieri
27 November 2019

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Ambienta has sold Italian energy efficiency business Energy Wave to Antas, which is backed by EQT Partners.

Unquote understands that the company has an EV of around €65-70m, which equates to around 10x its 2018 EBITDA.

Ambienta reaped an IRR of around 25% on this sale.

Energy Wave was established in June 2018 as a spinout from the energy service business of Restiani. Ambienta carved out Restiani from Total Erg in July 2017 in a deal valuing the company at around €60m. The GP acquired an 80% stake in the business, while the Restiani family and the management team retained the remaining minority holding.

Ambienta bought Restiani via its second vehicle, Ambienta II, which held a €323.5m final close in November 2014. More recently, the GP closed its third fund in May 2018, surpassing its €500m target and hitting its €635m hard-cap.

As part of this deal, Restiani's founder will buy back the remaining business unit and become sole shareholder of the Restiani group.

Under Ambienta's ownership, Energy Wave bolstered its organic growth, strengthened its sales team, expanded its geographic reach and broadened its product and service offering to include insulation, relighting of condominiums, photovoltaic systems, heat pumps and micro co-generation.

EQT acquired a minority stake in Antas from Giglio Group in a deal that valued the company in the €150-200m range. As part of the transaction, German entrepreneur Karl Gerhold, founder and board member of Hannover-based energy services company Getec (which was acquired by EQT in February 2017), acquired the majority stake in Antas, while Giglio retained a minority of around 30%.

The GP deployed capital from its EQT Infrastructure III fund, which held a final close on its €4bn hard-cap in February 2017, after less than six months on the road. The firm has recently raised a fourth vehicle, EQT Infrastructure IV, which held a final close on its hard-cap of €9bn in March 2019.

Company
Established in 2018, Energy Wave specialises in energy audits, engineering, installation, operation and maintenance of heating systems and smart meters for large residential buildings with centralised heating systems.

The company aims at reducing pollution by driving the adoption of technologies able to replace old and inefficient heating systems. It claims to have contributed to the preservation of 5,473 tonnes of oil energy and the reduction of 13,985 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2018. Energy Wave is headquartered in Alessandria, with six commercial offices across northern Italy. It serves 2,000 buildings with 35,000 apartments. Unquote understands that the business generates EBITDA of €6.5m from revenues of €50m.

People
Ambienta – Mauro Roversi (partner, chief investment officer).
Energy Wave – Stefano Granella (CEO).