Apax buys Rhiag-Inter from Alpha

Rhiag and Lanchester, the holding company, had planned to raise €195m worth of senior secure notes and €155m in senior PIK toggle notes, but plans have been scrapped.

BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse will provide financing to support the transaction, which is expected to close at the end of 2013. The deal was understood to be near closing in April this year. Market estimates placed the valuation upwards of €500m, or 6.25x earnings.

Alpha acquired the company from CVC in 2007. The transaction involved a senior and mezzanine debt package provided by ING.

CVC bought the firm in 1998. Throughout its history of private equity ownership, the company has grown acquisitively.

Company
Founded in 1962 and based in Milan, Rhiag is a distributor of automotive components. It is one of the largest players in Eastern Europe, where it operates through a network of subsidiaries. The company buys and distributes a wide range of products to local wholesalers and garages.

In 2012, 49% of sales were generated in Italy. Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine and Poland represented the remaining sales.

People
Frank Ehmer is a partner at Apax.

Advisers
Equity - Fineurop Soditic (Corporate finance); Legance, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (Legal); Ashurst (Legal); PwC (Accounting, tax); Di Tanno (Tax).
Company - Mediobanca (Corporate finance); Goldman Sachs (Corporate finance); Cleary Gottlieb (Legal). 

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Southern Europe
• Buyouts
• Exits
• Consumer
• Italy
• Apax Partners