Cinven buys Arcaplanet from Permira in €1bn-plus deal

Eliza Punshi
28 June 2021

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Private equity firm Cinven has acquired a majority stake in Arcaplanet, a pet care retail chain in Italy, from Permira and co-investor Winch Capital Partners.

Cinven acquired Arcaplanet for more than €1bn, sister publication Mergermarket reported.

As part of the deal, Cinven will back Arcaplanet to acquire Maxi Zoo Italia, the third largest pet care operator in the Italian market, from its subsidiary Fressnapf Group, who will become a minority owner of the merged company Arcaplanet Group.

Permira's exit comes five years after it acquired the company from Motion Equity Partners, a deal in which the latter reaped a 5x multiple at exit. During the five-year ownership, the GP said that Arcaplanet "executed a successful M&A strategy, including five bolt-on acquisitions and the transformational acquisition of the Fortesan chain". It added that the company's revenues grew from €150m at entry to €400m for 2021, and its EBITDA similarly grew from €20m to an expected €65m for 2021.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and expected to complete in Q1 next year.

Company
Founded in 1995 and based in Genoa, Arcaplanet is an online and physical pet care retailer with 380 shops and a presence across 17 regions of Italy. The company is expected to record revenues and EBITDA of €400m and €65m in 2021, respectively.

Headquartered in Germany, Fressnapf is a pet care provider in Europe, operating under the Maxi Zoo brand in more than 11 countries, including Italy.

People
Cinven – Maxim Crewe, Eugenio Preve (partners).
Arcaplanet – Michele Foppiani (founder, CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Bain & Company (commercial due diligence); Alvarez & Marsal (commercial due diligence); PwC (financial due diligence); Barclays (M&A); Deutsche Bank (M&A); Deloitte (tax); Onefourzero (technology due diligence); Andrea Trocino (technology due diligence); Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (legal); ERM (environmental due diligence); Marsh (insurance due diligence).
Vendor – BofA Securities (corporate finance); Mediobanca (corporate finance); Giliberti Triscornia & Associati (legal); Maisto & Associati (legal).
Company – LCA Studio Legale (legal).