Ambienta holds €147.2m first close

Further closings are expected in the coming months. 

The fund has a vanilla structure, though it comprises two sub-vehicles to suit the legal requirements of international and Italian LPs. 

Fondo Italiano di Investimento made a €30m commitment to the vehicle – its first contribution to a sector-focused fund. In its role as fund-of-funds, Fondo Italiano has committed around €350m to 17 national vehicles overall.

Ambienta Fund II has a €300m target. The vehicle's predecessor closed just shy of €218m in 2009.

"We raised our first fund with three partners based in Milan. This time, we have two hubs - Milan and Munich - and a base in London, as well as 14 people in our investment team," Nino Tronchetti Provera, managing partner and founder, told unquote". 

Earlier this year, Ambienta sold TowerLight to US-based generator manufacturer Generac, in a deal that saw the investor reap a three-digit IRR following an 18-month holding period. The GP also took a 35% stake in UK-based sub-sea and offshore foundation grouting services firm FoundOcean in June last year.

Investors
Private, industrial and institutional investors committed to the vehicle. More than 44% of the capital raised at first close was committed by eight new international investors including the European Investment Fund, Credit Suisse, Hermes, Unigestion and several American and German family offices.

"Interest from international LPs was positive and we are seeing increasing interest from them, because we do exactly what they want. People are looking for theme-driven investing, hands-on growth and not financial engineering," said Tronchetti Provera. "In the last two years, our companies grew 68%, with 110% of growth coming from outside of Europe. That means more than 50% of revenues originate outside of Europe."

Italian and international pension funds, insurance companies and funds-of-funds contributed the remaining capital. Intesa is among LPs in the previous vehicle that re-upped into Ambienta Fund II. 

Investments
Ambienta II will invest in European companies focused on resource efficiency, gas and pollution-control technologies. "We do not invest in a sector, we invest in a theme that spans the whole economy," said Tronchetti Provera. The fund will invest in 10-15 companies and follow an acquisitive growth strategy.

International expansion will be the central fund strategy; more than 85% of revenues generated by portfolio companies in Ambienta I originate outside of Italy. 

People
Nino Tronchetti Provera, Rolando Polli and Mauro Roversi are co-founders of Ambienta.

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