Emmeci (Italy) - Oct 2007

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01 October 2007

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Aksìa Capital III, managed by Aksìa Group, and Quadrivio have joined forces in the buyout of packaging machinery business Emmeci from Europe Capital Partners IV, a fund managed by LBO Italia. The deal values the company at 7x its forecast 2007 EBITA. The total equity commitment is €20m and the debt, containing a mix of amortising and bullet, was arranged by MPS Capital Services and co-led by Interbanca. The founders’ families and management will re-invest to retain a 10% stake in the business. The decision to make this acquisition via a club deal was taken during the competitive pitch process, where the two private equity firms were competing separately and against other players. The deal took around seven months to complete, with a period of no contact between the parties since their introduction in February 2007. It made sense to combine Aksìa’s expertise in the industrial sector with Quadrivio’s experience of doing business in the Far East to maximise value. These two skill sets will be used to accelerate the company’s growth abroad via the set up of commercial and production strategies in Asia.

Company

Emmeci is headquartered in Cerreto Guidi, near Florence. When it was founded in 1974, it repaired and maintained machinery for the manufacture of rigid cardboard boxes. In the 1980s, the company moved on to manufacture automatic machines for the manipulation of rigid boxes, mainly for the packaging of luxury goods. The group has three commercial branches in France, the US and China. It employs approximately 80 staff, 15% of whom are dedicated to R&D projects. Emmeci generated a turnover of more than €23m in 2006 with EBITDA of approximately €7.8m. Exports represent around 70% of the company’s proceeds.

People

Stefano Guidotti and Andrea Traverso represented Aksìa in the transaction, while Walter Ricciotti and Francesca Gennaro acted on behalf of Quadrivio.

Advisers

Equity - Leo De Rosa, Alberto Bianco (Legal)Equity - Studio Russo De Rosa Bolletta & Associati, Francesco Cartolano (Legal)Equity - Studio Russo De Rosa Bolletta & Associati, (Legal)Vendor - Eidos Partners, (Corporate Finance)Vendor - Studio Agnoli Bernardi, Marco Carbonara (Legal)Vendor - Studio D’Urso Munari Gatti, Andrea Giardino (Legal)