Unigrains's FAI holds €55m final close

FAI was launched in June 2017 with a €50m target and a €70m hard-cap, and held a first close on €40m in June 2018.

The vehicle is managed by a team of three investment managers based in Milan: Francesco Orazi, Alfredo Cicognani and Stefano Masini. They joined Unigrains in 2015 from Crédit Agricole's Sodica Investimenti and have experience in the agri-food sector.

Investors
Unigrains committed €25m, while the remaining capital was provided by Italian family offices, French and Swiss institutional investors, European funds-of-funds and several Italian entrepreneurs.

Investments
FAI invests for minority stakes in growth capital and buyout transactions, targeting Italian agri-food SMEs with revenues of €10-150m. For the companies with annual revenues in the €10-15m range, an EBITDA margin of around 15-20% is also required. All the transactions are conducted as co-investments and require that the family that owns the target company stays on with the business and retains a holding.

The fund intends to contribute to financing the development of Italian companies operating in the agri-food sector by boosting their acquisitive or organic growth, bolster their internationalisation and help their managerial transition.

The GP told Unquote that the fund will structure buyouts with a leverage level of 3-3.5x EBITDA, where the debt packages will be mainly provided by Italian banks.

The vehicle inherited two portfolio companies acquired by Unigrains in Italy in 2016 and 2017, Trasporti Romagna and Sfoglia Torino.

In addition, the fund has made four investments so far and deployed around €33m. It invested in chestnuts and frozen fruit producer Agrimola in September 2018; Sinfo One, a software company specialising in business intelligence for the food industry, in October 2018; frozen baked goods producers Fratelli Bassini 1963 and Glaxi Pane in February 2019; and Industrial Pack, a packaging specialist for the food sector, also in February 2019.

The fund expects to make four additional investments in the coming months, as well as several add-ons to support the external growth of its portfolio companies by pursuing an intensive buy-and-build strategy.

People
Fondo Agroalimentare Italiano – Francesco Orazi (investment director).
Unigrains – Jean-François Laurain (CEO).

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